Hey ladies & gentlemen.
Welp, we live to fight another week.
On Saturday the 5th, a bus full of our athletes traveled up to Delsea HS for step one of this wild party we call the postseason. Sectionals. In what coach called "a watered-down" group 4 south jersey meet, we finished 4th out of 15 of the largest schools in south jersey. DJ Rodriguez led the way for the cougars, posting a PR of 16:24, landing in 10th place overall in one of his best performances of his high school career. Puttin' the team on his back. Shortly behind DJ, the mustached Zach Iannarelli fought his way to a 16:28, a 15-second Delsea PR. Sophomore Ben Dillon ran a 17:05, despite throwing up ALL over the track with 300m to run. Seniors Russell Beatty and Ricky Zhao ran matching 17:16's, with Russell slightly getting the nod. Our 6th and 7th men were The juniors Mike and Mike, Minion and Wang, running 17:35 and 17:38.
Overall, we missed 2nd place by 8 points, and ran our fastest team average of the season, but our goals were definitely not met. Coach commented on our nervousness and lack of confidence, and this all has to change on Saturday as we head up to legendary Holmdel Park. For the seniors, don't make it your last race ever. Let's forget about this meet, and live to fight another day.
As always, keep runnin'
2 comments:
I'm pretty much saying everything that has ever been told to you guys by Cieslik but here goes:
At this point of the season, all the work is done and there are no magic workouts. The work that you have all done as a team was completed this summer and in the beginning to middle of this season. At this point, you have to get the mentality right to race. This is one of the most talented East Cross Country teams I've ever had the pleasure to watch develop into such talented athletes. Hell, I've raced with and ran with mostly all of you on this varsity squad. The matter of the fact is that you guys have to be confident in yourselves that you have what it takes to make it to the next level. Over the past couple seasons, we've had good enough showings at sectionals that allowed us to qualify for states, but we seem to count ourselves out before the race even begins. "Oh Cherokee/Shawnee/Lenape is looking a lot better than us this year. I don't know if we can make it to Meet of Champs." With that attitude, no. But if everyone goes out there this Saturday and gives their best effort and what they're capable of, I can see a Cherry Hill East team that makes it to the first Meet of Champions in God knows how long. Lets make this the year that we should New Jersey that Cherry Hill East Cross Country is a program that will be continuing great levels of success not only this year, but with many years to come.
-Michael Liachowitz '10
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