The Allentown High School boys’ cross country team improved to 3-1 on the season while running against West Windsor South and Hamilton back on September 19 at Veterans Park.
Allentown defeated Hamilton (15-49), but it was defeated by West Windsor South (15-44).
John Solewin (18:38), Garth DeBlasio (18:42), Adam Fleischacker (18:43), Matt Henderson (18:57), Dan DiRocco (19:16), Kyle Ondy (19:28) and Joey Jonas (19:54) were the top finishers for Allentown.
Pace Nalbone (20:08), Matt Mueller (20:26), Gersain Alvarado (20:28), Steve Monticello (20:29), Adam Duffy (20:46), Patrick Weaver (20:50), Zach Byrnes (21:09), Keith Yaturo (21:22), Zach Wishbow (21:25), Isaac Nissam (21:55), Vince Uccio (21:59), Chris Boss (22:06), John LoPorto (22:10, Dan Zaffos (22:16), Brant Leach (22:17), Luke Lamb (23:12), Garrett Miller (23:34), Ken Oldak (24:25), Mike Nordin (24:46), Jarred DeMonte (24:52), Nishit Patel (26:21) and Mike Girandola (28:30) also competed in the race for Allentown.
Allentown was scheduled to run against Ewing and Notre Dame this past Tuesday. It will compete against Steinert and Hightstown Tuesday at Veterans Park.
NEHS
The New Egypt boys’ cross country team is off to a 9-2 start on the season.
New Egypt has won four out of five races in both of its batch meets. The first meet included wins against Northern Burlington (22-33), Willngboro (15-50), Bordentown (15-50) and Palmyra (15-43). It was defeated by the host Cinnaminson team (33-23).
Sean Vazquez ran a time of 17:26, followed by Brian Whiteley (18:11), Matt Smith (18:35), Jimmy Bolton (18:43), Andrew Prendergast (19:22), Billy Mitchell (20:40:), Patrick Hampson (22:08), Andrew Hinger (23:07), Scott Vierling (24:16), Dan Sepp (26:12) and Rocco Natalicchio (27:12). Kim Howard also competed and ran a time of 24:29.
Vazquez had the top time of the day (16:52) as New Egypt defeated Pemberton (15-50), Riverside (15-50), Willingboro (15-40) and Holy Cross (20-36). It was defeated by Moorestown (43-20).
Whiteley (18:06), Smith (18:07), Bolton (18:27), Prendergast (18:54), Mitchell (20:04), Hampson (21:28), Hinger (21:29), Sepp (21:54), Vierling (22:07) and Natalicchio (25:28) also competed. Howard ran a time of 23:35.
Vazquez and Whitely both had times of 18:02 in an 18-38 win over South Hunterdon. Prendergast (18:43), Mitchell (19:17), Hampson (19:59) and Andrew Hinger (20:34) also competed for New Egypt.
New Egypt took part in the Cherokee Challenge last week. Whiteley (10:48) and Vierling (13:46) took part in the Seniors race. Vazquez (10:33), Bolton (11:34) and Howard (14:26) took part in the Juniors race. Mitchell (12:17) and Depp (13:03) took part in the Sophomore race. Prendergast (11:38), Hinger (13:06) and Natalicchio (15:37) took part in the Freshman race.
New Egypt was scheduled to run in a batch meet at BCIT this past Tuesday. It will host a batch meet this Tuesday at 4 p.m.
RHS
The transition from junior varsity to varsity could have been a difficult one for the Robbinsville cross country program had it not had two great leaders in Gina Norota and John Harmon.
Competing against distance runners from Nottingham, Ewing, Lawrence and Trenton on September 19th in Hamilton, Norota beat them all with a terrific 22:20 time.
"Realistically, it was more of a strategical race where I told her (Norota) to glide through the first mile," said Robbinsville cross country head coach Mike Walker, who had his talented junior pick up her speed in the second mile.
Norota ended up finishing 34 seconds better than second place finisher Tangere Hoagland from Trenton.
The Ravens’ Laura Swift placed 13th in the race with a 26:24 time. Unfortunately, with some of the Robbinsville girls out sick, the Ravens did not have enough runners to score as a team.
On the boys’ side, Harmon was able to spark the Ravens to a 21-39 win over the Nottingham Northstars. However, Trenton was able to edge Robbinsville 24-31.
"Harmon placed second against the teams we scored against and fourth overall," said Walker. "He’s coming along nicely. I’m pretty sure he’ll be in the 17’s by Sectionals."
The Ravens’ Mike Zappichi ran a 19:03 time to finish in the top five. And Walker was really happy with freshman Nick Lachman’s 19:23 time, which placed him eighth overall versus the teams Robbinsville was scoring against.
"He (Lachman) really didn’t run distance in middle school. In middle school he was a sprinter," added Walker.
Robbinsville’s other top scorers were Mike Schindenwolf (19:48 for 12th place), Mike Landolfi (20:47 for 12th place), Dan Orlak (20:55 for 13th place) and Tyler Muir (21:18).
Impressed by Muir’s time, Walker commented, "He’s just a freshman. That was a big race for him."
Although the Ravens did very well in their first 5K race two weeks ago, last Tuesday’s effort was something special.
"For the whole team to run 30 seconds faster at Mercer County Park than it did at Veteran’s Park is the real deal," said Walker, who feels Harmon is really starting to step up as a distance runner. Norota, meanwhile, is just a very good runner.
Gina (Norota) is running smart and her workouts are good," said Walker.
Ths past Tuesday (September 26th) Robbinsville was scheduled to race West Windsor-Plainsboro North and South at Washington’s Crossing. And on Saturday the Ravens will compete in the Challenge Cup at Holy Cross High.
The Robbinsville boys’ team is already 2-2, which is a better record than most first-year varsity programs can hope for.

