October 18, 2012

The Hump: South Jersey Open - Duel v. Eastern/twp - Shore Coaches - Disney -CAMCO Champs

Hello again boys, I awaken from my disney-induced hibernation to bring you several overdue posts: South Jersey Open, Duel v. Eastern/twp, Shore Coaches, Disney, and Camden County Championships.

On Saturday, September 29th, the East boys traveled to Delsea high school with a plan to win; after the varsity race began, Ben Dillon led the cougars to a quick start, thrusting them into 1st place. However, as the race continued, they fell into 2nd, then 3rd place, losing to Lenape and Kingsway. However, several great performances were recorded along the way: Ben Dillon's 16:29 and Mike Minion's 16:45. In the Junior Varsity race, the cougars came in third, led by the notable performers of Mike Wang (17:57), Joey Andalora (18:48), Lokesha Shah (18:57), and Jason Decker (19:30). In the boys freshman race, Aaron Groff recorded one of the best freshman performances in Cherry Hill East history, dropping a 10:28 in the two mile for 3rd place overall. Other notable performances were recorded by Brett Dashevsky (11:47) and Cole Parsons (11:55).

Not long after, most of the East boys cross country team traveled to GCC for its last duel meet v. Eastern and Washington Twp. In a tight race vs. Eastern, the cougars unfortunatley lost by 1 point. Washington Twp also beat the cougars to the punch. However, several notable performances were recorded by Aaron Groff (17:43), Brett Dashevsky (19:49), and Jason Decker (19:59), as the latter two broke 20 for the first time.

Several days later, most of the non-freshmen boys traveled to Orlando to endure a 5-day, mouse-flavored, ordeal , but that did  not stop the remaining cougars from hiking to Holmdel with our very much missed Mr. Christopher Corey. The day generally was very positive, with huge performances for all  freshmen on the course. Exceptional performances were recorded by Aaron Groff (17:43) and Lokesha Shah (19:29).

About 1100 miles away, the 12 characters competed in the Disney Cross Country Classic: Aaron "Goofy" Zucker, Christian "Eore" Mele, Michael "The Beast" Bruce, Brett "Daffy" Dashevsky, Ben "Tigger" Dillon, Jeff "Piglet" Braun, Mike "Mickey" Minion, Jared "Prince Charming" Dashevsky, Dor "Aladdin" Tillinger, Dan "Dopey" Helfand, Joey "Bambi" Andalora, and Sean "Mr. Rabbit" Taylor. Due to the horrible conditions of the race (high temperatures, high volume of racers, ridiculous-first-200m-chute, mud, humidity, tiredness from Magic Kingdom, premeet pizza), not many notable performances were record; nonetheless, Ben Dillon dropped a 16:49 for a medal and 6th place while Dan Helfand also recieved a medal for his 9th place, 17:25 performance. Disappointingly, however, East won the third place trophy in the large school race. In the JV race, however, most participants ran very well, in relation to the conditions; Joey Anadalora took 7th place and a medal, running a solid 19:04, Aaron Zucker nailed a 20 minute flat, Brett was not far behind with a 20:16 (nice job Brett), and Dor also ran a relatively good 21:13. Fortunatley, all of the awfulness of the race was forgotten later that day when we experienced much worse pain while waiting for the Rockin' Rollercoaster for 75 minutes.

The next Saturday, the boys shimmied over to GCC for the Camden County Championships in an attempt to take the grail from the favorite, PVI. Despite a five man average that was 25 seconds faster than that of East's Camden County Championship team of last year, PVI pulled away, winning by 8 points. Nearly all runners recorded prs, however, with the top 5 of Mike Minion, Ben Dillon, Jared Dashevsky, Dan Helfand, and Christian Mele winning medals. In the JV race, some highlights were prs by almost the entire team, except Mike Wang, who decided to win the Camden County section instead. In the Freshmen race on the 4208m (Really?) course, Aaron Groff dropped a big W while leading the freshmen team to a win over Highland; Kennedy Omari and Cole Parsons also ran well. Now that we're over the hump boys, there's no holding back now; each win by any team, JV, Frosh, and or Varsity, is just another step towards MOCs, not just this year, but for the next 3 years to come.
Don't just keep running, keep winning.

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