In his first varsity race, Cherokee’s Jack Tindall destroyed the freshman course record at the 28th annual Cherokee Challenge, covering the two-mile course in 9:53.24.
Tindall shattered the course record of 10:09 set in 2007 by Triton’s Robert Rawls and matched in 2009 by Matt Nelson of Barnegat.
His time was 3rd-fastest of all four races, fastest by a New Jersey runner and would have placed him 2nd in the junior and senior races and 1st in the sophomore race.
Tindall, who ran 4:14.98 in West Chester in May for a full mile as an 8th-grader, won by 49 seconds over Zaccheaus Harrigan of Haddon Heights, who was 2nd in 10:42.14.
That 9:53 is 20th-fastest in course history in any class. Tindall became the first Cherokee boy to win the freshman race at the traditional season-opening Cherokee Challenge in 20 years, since Alex Yersak ran 11:08 to win the 2004 race over a slightly different course.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 