The Cherokee girls ran the 7th-fastest 4-by-8 in South Jersey history Saturday and placed 6th in the Championship of America race at the 127th annual Penn Relays at Franklin Field.
Senior Kelsey Niglio, junior Kerry O’Day, freshman Maddie Meder and sophomore Megan Niglio ran 9:14.25.
The only South Jersey schools to ever run faster are Haddonfield four times and Lenape twice. Cherokee set its previous school record of 9:17.77 when the Chiefs placed 4th in last year’s CoA race with Kelsey Niglio, O’Day, Megan Niglio and Nicole Clifford, who graduated.
Cherokee’s time is fastest by any South Jersey school at Penn since 2008, when Haddonfield placed 7th in 9:06.30 with Mariele Hall, Greta Feldman, Mia Spinelli and Alyssa D’Orazio.
Kelsey Niglio got the Chiefs out into the lead pack with a quick 2:14.58 leadoff split, 8th-fastest of all the runners in the race and the 3rd-fastest leadoff leg. O’Day followed with a personal-best 2:17.01 split. Meder, split 2:22.52 – four seconds faster than on Friday – to set up Megan Niglio’s 2:20.16 anchor.
Union Catholic of Scotch Plains won the race in 8:44.98 and was the only New Jersey school to run faster than Cherokee, who is now the fastest public school in the state. Rumson-Fair Haven was the only other New Jersey school to qualify and placed 11th in 9:22.79.
Cherokee qualified by running 9:23.45 Friday in its qualifying race.
All-Time South Jersey 4-by-800 Sub-9:20 List
9:00.51 … Haddonfield, 2021
9:05.62 … Lenape, 2012
9:05.83 … Lenape, 2008
9:06.30 … Haddonfield, 2008
9:10.32 … Haddonfield, 2000
9:12.30 … Haddonfield, 2019
9:14.25 … Cherokee, 2023
9:15.61 … Ocean City, 2014
9:15.19 … Lenape, 2007
9:15.92 … Haddonfield, 2015
9:16.57 … Seneca, 2017
9:16.79 … Haddonfield, 1999
9:17.77 … Cherokee, 2022
9:18.22 … Kingsway, 2016
9:18.37 … Haddonfield, 2019
9:18.57 … Seneca, 2018
9:18.71 … Lenape, 2011
9:18.93 … Haddonfield, 2018
9:18.94 … Lenape, 2006
9:19.15 … Wilson, 2002
9:19.68 … Kingsway, 2017
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 