Cherokee’s 3,200-meter relay team advanced to Saturday’s Championship of America 3,200-Meter Relay with the 4th-fastest time of the four qualifying races Friday morning at the 128th annual Penn Relays at Franklin Field.
Senior Nick Kuenkel, freshman Ben Realley, sophomore Logan Bromley and senior Bobby Poplau ran 7:51.14 to place 4th in the first of two large-school races following two small-school races.
Eight of the 12 qualifiers came from that first large school race, with just one from the two small-school races and three from the final race.
Cherokee will race in the Championship of America at 4:10 p.m. Saturday. It’s Cherokee’s first Championship of America 4-by-8 since 2012, when they placed 9th in 7:49.85 despite a dropped baton.
Cherokee is the first South Jersey school to make the Championship of America 4-by-8 since Egg Harbor placed 5th in 2017 in 7:47.13 with Robert Dessoye, Alex Dessoye, Aidin Hendriks and Eric Barnes.
Despite losing the two-fastest legs from last year’s Meet of Champions-winning 7:41.17 team – Conor Jacob and Patrick Ditmars – Cherokee is now the fastest team in New Jersey this year.
Kuenkel led off in 1:56.55 and had Cherokee near the front in a fairly fast race, and Realley – a rare 9th-grader running on one of the greatest stages in high school track – followed with a clutch 1:58.83 split to move the Chiefs from 6th to 5th .
Bromley, also in his first Penn Relays, ran the exact same time on the 3rd leg and moved Cherokee into 4th. Poplau anchored in 1:56.55 to keep Cherokee well ahead of 5th-place Toms River North.
So Cherokee had the 4th-fastest time going into the final race, which meant eight schools had to run faster to bump them. But when that race went out slowly – the lead group was out in 1:58-high to 1:59-low – it was clear Cherokee was safely through and would race again Saturday.
The cut-off for the Championship race turned out to be 7:57.10. The only other New Jersey schools to qualify were Toms River North [7:52.51] and West Orange [7:54.27].
The top three qualifiers were Jamaica College of Kingston [7:54.38], Newburgh (N.Y.) Free Academy [7:45.54] and Christian Brothers Academy of Memphis, Tenn. [7:47.72].
This is Cherokee’s 4th Championship of America 4-by-8. The Chiefs placed 9th in 2012 in 9:49.85 with Colin Merrigan, Shawn Wilson, Ross Staudt and Drew Viscidy.
Championship of America 4-by-8 Qualifiers
7:45.38 … Jamaica College [3]
7:45.54 … Newburgh Free Academy [3]
7:47.72 … CBA [Tenn.] [3]
7:51.14 … Cherokee [3]
7:52.05 … Central Bucks West [4]
7:52.51 … Toms River North [3]
7:53.76 … Council Rock North [3]
7:53.86 … Kingston College [4]
7:54.27 … West Orange [3]
7:54.32 … Woodbridge [3]
7:55.63 … St. John’s College [1]
7:57.10 … Lake Braddock [4]
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 