Kingsway standout runs fastest girls’ time of the day by 22 seconds
Moorestown’s Rogers, Haddonfield’s Spinelli and Southern’s Smith also win

By Kevin Cranston
Runningco.com Writer

EVESHAM – Kingsway High School’s Chelsea Ley had her goal set before she even showed up at the Cherokee Challenge on Saturday: she wanted to break 11 minutes on the meet’s 3,200-meter course.
            It didn’t matter to her that most girls don’t even break 11 minutes for 3,200 on the track, let alone on a cross country course. Ley felt confident in her training heading into the meet, so she decided to let it rip.
            And in the most dominant performance of the entire meet, Ley smashed the meet record as she hammered out a 10:55 to win the sophomore race by 53 seconds. The old meet record of 11:25 was set in 2005 by Southern’s Danielle Tauro in the junior race.
            In claiming her second straight Cherokee Challenge title (she ran 11:36 in the freshman race last year), Ley posted the fastest time out of the four class races by 22 seconds.
            Following Ley were Haddonfield’s Marielle Hall (11:48), Delsea’s Ashley Deckert (11:53), Southern’s Kate Armstrong (11:56) and Hopewell Valley’s Julie Jablonski (11:57).
            For Ley, she was in control of the race immediately. She stormed to the front and held the lead after the first 400 meters.     
“Once I took it out through the first 400, no one was really with me,” Ley said. “From then on I knew I was racing against the clock.”
After the first 800, Ley already held a seven-second lead over the field. She increased that to about 25 just after the mile mark.
“I heard my coaches say that I was good after about the 800,” Ley said. “After hearing that, it was a bit of relief for me. It took some of the pressure off of me.”
And even though the field consisted of some very quality runners, Ley was just at a completely different level on Saturday.

Senior Race

            When Our Lady of Mercy’s Jena Peacock took the pace in the senior race out hard through the first mile, Moorestown’s Brianna Rogers didn’t panic.
“I didn’t want to go out in the very front,” Rogers said. “So I just kept my pace. I went out in the top 10 and gradually moved up.”
It was this type of smart racing that worked perfectly for Rogers. She laid off a fast early pace and made moves when the strides of other girls started to shorten.
It all resulted in a victory in 11:32 – the third-best time of the day. Saturday’s win was Rogers’ second straight at the Cherokee Challenge as she won the junior race in 2006 with a time of 11:46.
After Rogers was Howell’s Lindsay Lambert (11:44), Peacock (11:45), Cherokee’s Alison Weeks (11:46) and Hopewell Valley’s Marissa Greco (12:02).
After going out controlled, Rogers got herself into third position by the mile mark as she ran with Lambert and Peacock. As the three approached one of the course’s inclines just after the mile mark, both Lambert and Peacock ran slightly off course. By the time they got back on track, Rogers was in the lead.
And she never relinquished it.
“When I heard 5:40 at the mile, I knew we were moving pretty good,” Rogers said. “But I didn’t let that affect me. I made my move when I felt right and it worked out.”   

Freshman Race
Despite running only about five miles this week as she recovered from a stomach virus, Haddonfield’s Mia Spinelli showed no signs of weakness on Saturday as she held off Toms River North’s Ashley Kotran over the final 400 meters to win her first-ever high school cross country race in 12:09.
Kotran, who was also clocked at 12:09, was followed by Delsea’s Felecia O’Donnell (12:10) and TRN teammates Dana Delanoy (12:14) and Johanna Petruski (12:27).
Spinelli said she started to get sick last weekend and spent essentially all of Saturday and Sunday in bed. And even at the start of this week, Spinelli still wasn’t feeling great. According to her, it wasn’t until Wednesday that she started to feel OK and was able to run a little bit.
“I wasn’t feeling too good about the race,” Spinelli said. “After barely running at all this week, I didn’t know how I would be.”
But while she was out on the course, you would have never guessed Spinelli missed any training time.
Hanging out in fifth for the first 800 meters, Spinelli gradually moved up until it was her, Kotran and O’Donnell running 1-2-3 just after the mile mark. The three stayed in close contact with each other for the next 600 meters.
But just as the three made their way up the course’s final hill with a little less than 800 to go, Spinelli and Kotran made it a two-girl race.
“Going up that last hill, I was just concentrating on getting in front,” Spinelli said. “I felt like I needed to use the hill to my advantage.”
Spinelli didn’t quite take the outright lead on the hill, but did finally pull ahead over the last 400 and had just enough at the end to fend off a hard-closing Kotran.
“I heard someone screaming go, go, go, she’s right on you,” Spinelli said. “It was then I knew I needed to finish strong.”

Junior Race
            For Southern’s Jillian Smith, whose in her first year off running cross country after playing soccer her freshman and sophomore years, Saturday went a lot better than her first race earlier in the week.
On Tuesday, in a conference meet against Brick Memorial and Jackson at Ocean County Park, Smith got disqualified for inadvertently cutting the course.
“I got caught in the back of a boys’ race and I followed who was in front of me because I figured they knew where they were going,” Smith said. “It turns out they went the wrong way.”
But on Saturday, Smith, whose 2007 track PRs were 2:08.80 for 800 meters and 4:46.87 for 1,600 meters, didn’t have to worry about following anybody, for she was alone for most of the race.
Taking the lead after the first 800 meters, Smith went unchallenged the rest of way, winning the junior race by 19 seconds with a time of 11:17 – the second-fastest time of the day.
Grabbing places two through five were Millville’s Lindsay Bertullis (11:36) and Britney Kott (11:40), Hopewell Valley’s Clare Buck (11:42) and Williamstown’s Maria Ruiz (11:47).
“Today went a lot better than Tuesday,” Smith said jokingly after the race. “The course was well marked.”

She further added: “Coach (Zatorski) told me that if I felt good after 800 meters that I should go, so I did. I’m glad to get a big-meet win under my belt.”

2007 Team Cherokee Challenge Team Champions: Haddonfield