Senior Justin Kelly’s 4:24 anchor led Cherokee to its fastest indoor DMR in 16 years Friday at the state Group 4 relay championships at the Bennett Center in Toms River.
Kelly split 4:24.52 and Cherokee ran 10:35.83, fastest this year by a South Jersey school and No. 10 in the U.S. Cherokee finished just behind West Windsor-Plainsboro South [10:33.36] and Hunterdon Central [10:34.34].
The time is fastest by Cherokee (or any Burlington County school) indoors since the 2001 Chiefs ran 10:16.32 for second at Easterns (Josh Joseph 3:07.2, Sean Meyers 50.9, Kevin Hurley 2:01.8, Marc Pelerin 4:16.3).
On Friday, sophomore Chris Spisak led off with a 3:15.7 followed by seniors Kevin Milligan-Tinker [52.2] and Brandon Marks [2:03.5] to set up Kelly.
Cherokee ran about three seconds faster than Camden Catholic did one day earlier on the same track. Camden Catholic ran 10:38.89 for second place in the Parochial A race with the team of juniors Matt Coffey, Ray Derman, Denny Kelly and Richard Castaneda. The same quartet won the 3,200-meter relay in 8:17.4.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 