Cherokee didn’t like the way things went at the Meet of Champions. So they found another meet.
The Cherokee girls, disappointed in their performance at the Meet of Champions Thursday at Franklin Township High, raced down to Franklin Field in West Philly in two cars – Franklin to Franklin, about 65 miles, at rush hour, through a city missing a chunk of its main highway – and arrived just in time to jump in the 4-mile relay.
When the Meet of Champions was postponed a day from Wednesday to Thursday, it meant Cherokee – and a bunch of other schools – had to choose between the Meet of Champions and Franklin Field Nationals.
The Cherokee girls opted for the MoC but after the 800, they made a quick decision to carpool down to Philly. They were entered in the 4-by-mile and never scratched, so all they had to do was show up and run.
Now, it’s not ideal to race at different meets 65 miles apart a few hours apart without a proper cooldown at the first meet or a proper warmup at the second meet.
But Cherokee made the best of a difficult situation and placed 6th, earning All-America honors for sophomore Megan Niglio, senior Kelsey Niglio, freshman Madeline Meder and junior Kerry O’Day.
No splits available – thanks “pttiming” – but Cherokee ran 21:03.39, which is actually 3rd-fastest in South Jersey history. The Chiefs set the South Jersey record of 20:42.80 with the Niglio sisters, O’Day and Nicole Clifford, who graduated last year.
Cherokee’s time is for the full four-mile relay. A few meets, like East Coast Relays used to have the metric equivalent – the 6,400-meter relay. Haddonfield has run 20:48.70 [in 2000] for the 6,400-meter relay, but you can’t convert up, so we have to keep separate lists for the 4-by-1,600 and the 4-by-mile. For the sake of comparison, subtract 7.2 seconds to convert a 4-mile relay to 6,400 meters. But we’d rather keep separate lists.
Anyway, congrats to Cherokee. The day might not have gone exactly as planned, but it ended up with an All-America performance.
20:42.80 … Cherokee, 2022
20:48.7h … Haddonfield, 2000
21:03.39 … Cherokee, 2023
21:07.81y … Shawnee, 2014
21:24.1h … Cherokee, 2000
21:24.30y … Bishop Eustace, 2010
21:32.24 … Woodrow Wilson, 2001
21:35.0h … Lenape, 2012
21:36.25 … Haddonfield, 2007
21:43.9h … Woodrow Wilson, 2000
21:44.25 … Kingsway, 2019
21:44.7h … Cherry Hill East, 2006
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 