Senior Nick Kuenkel won his second straight title and Cherokee pitched the first County Open shutout in history Friday over 5,000 meters at Mill Creek Park in Willingboro.
Kuenkel joined Alex Yersak and Nick Falk as Cherokee’s 3rd repeat winner and led a 1-2-3-4-5 Cherokee finish for a perfect 15-point total. The Chiefs finished with a 15-56 advantage over 2nd-place Shawnee, with Rancocas Valley 3rd with 95 points.
The team championship is Cherokee’s 11th in a row and 25th overall. Last time Cherokee did not win was 2013, when Northern Burlington – led by a 1-2 finish from Chris Martin and Scott Harrison – scored 52 points and topped Lenape, who had 78. Cherokee was 3rd with 84.
The previous low score in the County Open’s 54-year history was Cherokee’s 20 in 1999 and again in 2019.
Kuenkel won the race in 16:03, followed by senior Robert Poplau in 16:19, sophomore Logan Bromley in 16:21, junior Liam Tindall in 16:25 and freshman Benjamin Realley – in his first major varsity race – in 16:42. Junior Benjamin Weiner also finished in the top-10, taking 8th overall in 16:54 and finishing ahead of every other team’s 1st finisher other than Shawnee and Moorestown.
That’s a 39-second gap between Cherokee’s 1st and 5th runners.Cherokee’s 16:21 average looks like a course record, although I don’t have complete results for some early years. But considering that the course is running much faster than it used to, it’s hard to imagine a faster average. The fastest I found was Cherokee’s 16:31 in 2017.
Reilly’s time is the fastest at Mill Creek by a freshman as far back as the MileSplit database goes, which is 2000 (and probably ever). The previous fastest freshman time on record is a 16:50 by Shawnee’s Connor Herr in 2008 when he placed 8th.
Others in the top 10: Moorestown sophomore Peter Simpson [6th in 16:46], Shawnee Yanni Ekatomatis [7th in 16:52], Shawnee Noah Stapleton [9th in 16:58] and Rancocas Valley Christian Rouzard [10th in 17:12].
Here’s a look at all the repeat winners in meet history:
Eric Lorenz [Holy Cross], 1986, 1987
Jason Capelli [Rancocas Valley], 1992, 1993
Brad Bisinger [Lenape], 1996, 1997
Adam Ambrus [Shawnee], 1999, 2000
Alex Yersak [Cherokee], 2006, 2007
David Forward [Shawnee], 2008, 2009
Nick Falk [Cherokee], 2014, 2015
Austin Gabay [Cinnaminson], 2018, 2019
Nick Kuenkel [Cherokee], 2022, 2023
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 