A great meet with amazing atmosphere! Pennsylvanior and New Jersey teams collide and even Delaware gets in the mix at the Cherokee Challenge each year. Now in its 19th year the meet management down at Cherokee have it down to a science, the two mile course has a rich history, and watching (joining) the crowds as they sprint across the fields to the finish line never gets old. 

We took a ton of video at this meet and race videos will be released over the night and tomorrow. Working on editing it between recaps and stats. Photographs are being uploaded to the meet page over the next few days as well, some are already posted. Major thanks to RunningWorksPics.

Now lets get some recap'age going.  Keep checking back on the meet page for race videos!

A Middle School Recap from this meet will be posted in a seperate article soon!

Fastest Time of the Day

Boys Winner - Luke Petela of Haddon Township

Luke Petela finished Saturday's meet off with an exciting finish that almost broke a meet record. After losing most of the pack after the major hill on the course a little after the mile Luke and Andrew Marston of Conestoga (PA) battled to the line the rest of the way. Luke felt he was in great position at that point but quickly realize this was a winnable race for him. He kicked it in hard and came across the line in first for the Seniors with a meet leading time of 9:27.69.

This was a 34 second personal best on the Cherokee course for Luke! Heading into the meet he had the 9th best returning time from 2013 when he placed 8th in the junior race with a time of 10:01.59. 

Coming off a great outdoor season, where he placed second at the Meet of Champions for the 1600m with a time 4:14.39, and looking at this early season run we anticipate great things for this fall. 

Photo by RunningWorksPics for MileSplit

Video Interview with Luke Petela

Girls Winner - Kacie Breeding of Unionville (PA)

On the girls side the fastest time of the meet didn't come from the veteran senior girls race. No no Unionville junior Kacie Breeding wouldn't have any of that. Winning the junior division race with a time of 11:15.98 Kacie won the fastest time of the meet award. She was over a second ahead of the next best time which came from her teammate Olivia Young, who won the senior race with a time of 11:17.25. 

Heading into this year Olivia Young and Kacie Breeding were the third and fourth best returning times from the 2013 running. Both improved on their times. Breeding ran 11:24 last year good for 7th in the sophomore race. Young posted an 11:21 for 6th in the junior race during 2013, she has a course personal best of 11:13 which came back in 2012 when she placed third in the sophomore race that year.  

Unionville would end up winning the girls team title at this meet, more to come below. 

Photo by RunningWorksPics for MileSplit

The fastest New Jersey girls time from the meet came from junior Ciara Roche of Freehold Twp. Roche placed third in the junior division race with a time of 11:25. This was the fourth best time of the meet.

Photo by RunningWorksPics for MileSplit

Downingtown West wins the boys team scoring with a total of 38 points. This meet takes the team leader from each class race and add those scores. The Downingtown boys placed 9-2-2-25 from the freshmen to senior races. 

In the freshmen race Evan Kaiser led the way with a 9th place finish and a time of 10:53.92. In the sophomore and junior division the team had two second place finishers! Ryan Barton took second in the sophomore race with a time of 10:07, and  Henry Sappey earned second in the junior race running a team leading 9:54. In the senior race Charlie Barton finished off the job with a 25th place finish and ran a time of 10:22. 

The first New Jersey team in the Boys Scoring was Kingsway who had 59 points and were led place wise by their freshmen runner Joe Grandizio who posted a 10:25. Time wise the Kingsway boys were led by their senior star Noah Culbreth who took 5th in the senior race with a time of 9:43. Mike Messina took 25th in the sophomore race at 11:00, Mark Mihleback took 27th in the junior division with a 10:41. Full List Here.

Photo by RunningWorksPics for MileSplit

The Unionville girls won their second straight Cherokee Challenge team title on Saturday. In 2013 they posted a dominant showing winning the sophomore, junior, and senior races while placing third in the freshmen! This year they finished in similar fashion with winners in three of the four races!

The girls started off their Saturday with Allison Herr taking 21st in the freshmen race, she ran a time of 13:30. Then the dominance began, in the sophomore race Anna Juul won with a time of 11:44, over ten seconds ahead of second! In the junior race we saw the fastest time of the meet thanks to Kacie Breeding who took first overall for her team running 11:16. The senior race wasn't too shabby either as Olivia Young ran the second fastest time of the meet winning with a 11:17. 

The first New Jersey team for the Girls Team Scoring was Toms River North who took fifth as a team. The North girls were led place wise by their freshmen Grace Cocanower who took fifth with a time of 12:35. The team's best time of the day was ran by Madyson Reilly who took 14th in the sophomore race with a time of 12:24. In the junior race Krystina Geroge placed 25th at 13:08, and in the senior race Alexa Fotopoulos took 18th with a time of 12:35. Full List Here

Photo by RunningWorksPics for MileSplit

In the combined co-ed team scoring Downingtown West took first overall with 89 points. The first New Jersey team to finish in this category was Delsea in fifth with 198 points. Full list here. 

Click here or on the photo for Merged Results from the meet.