Mann places 27th in Mercer meet

Girls team finishes in eighth place in a field of 14 teams.

By: Kyle Moylan
   Even running while not feeling her best, Nicole Mann still managed to place 27th for the Allentown High School girls’ team at the Mercer County Cross Country Championships this past Tuesday.
   "She was 27th and the top 25 medal," noted Allentown Coach Maureen Nosal. "She missed medaling by two spots. She was a little pissed by that. She wanted to medal, but not everyone feels their best every day. Nicole is a little sick."
   Allentown finished in the middle of the pack as a team, coming in eighth place in a field of 14 teams. Allentown’s 233 points put them right behind Hightstown (172) and ahead of Lawrence (238).
   "Overall, I think they did well," Nosal said. "Could we have been a little better? A little better, but they weren’t terrible."
   In addition to Mann, six other girls competed in the race for Allentown. Lauren Farrell was 40th, Dana Burke 45th, Lauren Hilker 57th, Lipica Shah 57th, Sarah McCarthy 80th and Jodi Holt 82nd.
   In regular season action on October 16 at Veterans Park, Allentown came away with wins against Nottingham (17-38) and Ewing (15-50). Hopewell, Stuart and Hamilton were also competing in the race, but Allentown wasn’t scoring against either one of them.
   Mann was the top finishers for Allentown in a time of 21:50. Burke was next across for the Redbirds (22:46), followed by Farrell (23:44), Hilker (24:35), Shah (25:01), McCarthy (27:28) and Holt (28:11).
   The two wins left Allentown with a 5-4 record. Allentown will conclude its season with a quad meet at the Washington Crossing course next Tuesday. Based on times and records, Nosal is expecting her team to come away with two wins and a loss.
   "We should end 7-5," Nosal noted. "That’s respectable. We’re all juniors and freshmen. Everyone is back next year. That’s good."
BOYS
   The Allentown High School boys’ cross country team improved to 7-3 on the season with wins over Ewing (24-31) and Nottingham (15-42) on October 16th. Notre Dame , Hamilton and Hopewell Valley also competed in the race. Allentown wasn’t scoring against those teams, but there certainly were some individual battles taking place.
   Allentown’s Scott Vorwerk won the race in a time of 16:17, topping Hopewell’s Joe Davidson by eight seconds. Vorwerk also got the best of Davidson in the Mercer County Championships. Vorwerk won the Mercer Meet in a time of 16:10.9. Davidson placed third in a time of 16:19.6.
   "I wish I had come in second in that race (back on October 16) to make everyone think there were doing better than they were," Vorwerk smiled.
   "He (Davidson) said he raced differently for the bigger meets. That got me motivated for (the Mercer County Championships)."
   Pat Mazzell placed eighth in the quad meet back on October 16th in a time of 17:00.