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Cherokee High School have been climbing the ranks in New Jersey throughout the season, and they proceed to prove why: Junior Nick Kuenkel placed 1st with a time of 15:51. Kuenkel was followed by teammate Patrick Ditmars, who was the only other runner to break 16 minutes at Mill Creek Park. The Chiefs won the team title by 26 points over Lenape HS, and this was without one of their top runners in senior Conor Jacob, as Kuenkel briefly mentioned: "We have a pretty good team. All of us are getting better, and we were actually missing one of our guys today, so there's definitely do a lot better in the future."
Nick Kuenkel's "sit-and-kick" strategy has proven to be very successful for Cherokee's top runner, as he used this strategy in the past weekend to win his race at the New Balance Shore Coaches Invitiational. When asked about, the usage of this strategy in future races, Kuenkel stated there is a possibility. "It could be. It's definitely an option, but we'll see what my coach says."
After the boy's race, the Moorestown HS girls squeaked by Cherokee, winning by a narrow margin of just 3 points. The Quakers were led by junior Julia Brock and sophomore Noelia Reyes, who placed both 6th and 9th place. Brock and Reyes paced teammates Gabrielle DeJoseph, Paige McCabe and Hannah Byrd-Leitner all to top 20 finishes that would give deliver their thrilling team win.
The individual winner of the girls race was Northern Burlington Regional's Liliah Gordon, who went out in first place and never looked back. Gordon won by a convincing 35 seconds after an impressive 6th place finish at Shore Coaches this past weekend. The Northern Burlington sophomore used her race at the 2021 BCXC Open as a motivating factor to keep her focused and concentrated on the win this year: "I used it as motivation... keeping it in the back of my mind and knowing how close I was last year, I didn't want to give that up again like I did last year." Gordon also plans on winning the Burlington County Championships on October 19 at New Egypt HS.