Saint James Varsity Exerts Early Season Dominance at Cherokee

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — The school doors at Saint James opened just a few days ago, but the reigning State Champs were completely prepared for their first contest of the season in Southern Jersey.

The Nike Cherokee Challenge is the largest early season meet in the State of New Jersey and is predominantly a high school meet - but has one of the most competitive middle school races in the Mid-Atlantic Region.

The meet had well over 100 teams from multiple states and has a storied history dating back to 2004.

As has been meet tradition, the girls middle school race launched first at 9 a.m. on the notoriously fast course, and the SJS girls were up to the task of defending their meet title.

The Orange Crush were led by their 8th grade Captain, Claire Johnson, who ran the course in near school record time and had an impressive 6th place finish.

Johnson was followed by a barrage of teammates with top 20 finishes. Julia Daus also had a top 10 finish and Livy Battista, Avery Pfistner and Emiliana Galeone each had top 20 finishes.

The Orange Crush boys were up next and were not to be overshadowed. They approached the start with unique confidence.

With current school 2400M XC record holder Liam Johnson and school 3000M record holder Kaden Pye both on the line, and a strong and experienced supporting cast, the boys were looking to follow up on last year’s strong performance.

It was Pye who crossed first for the Spartans with a 3rd place finish and wrestled the school record from Johnson, who actually broke his own prior record and also grabbed a top 5 finish. They had support from Johnny Roberts who had a top 20 finish and Mav Heinze and Filip Sasko both of whom medaled. Heinze was the youngest athlete to medal at the meet.

Coach Matthew Wizeman, who was uncharacteristically positive about the opener, said he felt really good about the team’s preparation going into the meet.

"These athletes worked really hard this summer, and they were ready to hit the ground running. Our mantra is that the two most important words for a quality XC season are 'July and August'," said Wizeman. "These early season meets are won and lost on the trails over the summer. Our goal now is to keep up the intensity throughout the season and stay injury free. This is clearly one of our athletes’ favorite meets, but we have bigger goals later in this season."

The SJS harriers have a few weeks to prep for the small meet portion of the season which begins on Sept. 20 at the Munchkin Meet at Villa Walsh followed by duals against Assumption and Saint E’s later that week.

— Submitted by Saint James School