AHS’s Wishbow medals in MCT cross country

By: Kyle Moylan Sports Editor
    The Allentown High School cross country teams will be trying to extend their seasons when they compete in the Group II Sectionals at Thompson Park in Monroe this weekend.
    The top five teams and top 10 individual runners will advance to the overall Group II finals the following week.
    Based on times run by his team and its competitors, Allentown coach Doug Hunt estimates his team running somewhere in the middle of the pack in the race.
    “I’d like to see us do a little better,” Hunt added. “That would be great. Zach had a shot to go top 10.”
    Zach Wishbow is Allentown’s top runner. Wishbow was Allentown’s top finisher in the Mercer County Championships, held last Friday at Washington Crossing Park. Wishbow placed 25th in the race with a time of 17:16. The top 25 runners earn a medal.
    “Usually, I’d be yelling that out, but the guy behind Zach was nine seconds back,” Hunt noted, referring to the lack of drama for the final medal spot.
    The other runners in the varsity race for Allentown were Adam Duffy (18:36), Justin Duffy (18:51), Pace Nalbone (19:05), Nishit Patel (19:15), Brant Leach (19:37) and Garrett Hoover (21:28).
    Allentown placed 12th out of the 14 teams entered in the race. While certainly not a great finish, ones does have to consider the competition. The Mercer race was as tough of a field as it gets in county championships in New Jersey.
    The Allentown girls placed eighth out of 14 teams.
    Mary Sancilio placed 41st in a time of 22:43.5 to be the first Allentown finisher. Amanda Bader (23:18.2), Brittany Ferriola (23:26.3), Meghan Valnoski (23:45.4) and Casey Finn (28:24.8) also competed in the race for Allentown.
    The Allentown girls did not have anyone entered in the J.V. or Freshmen race.
    In the boys’ freshman race (4000 meters distance), Allentown had two runners place in the top 15 and earn medals. Jason Rosenstein was 10th (14:18) and Ian Herrighty was 14th (14:33). Joe Zupko was 23rd (16:03).
    Nick Palladino (19:10), Joey Jonas (20:52) and Trevor Toms (20:52) competed in the J.V. race for Allentown.
    Now Allentown will take its crack at the sectional field and see if it can run with the elite of Group II.
    “It’s hard to tell what it’s going to take,” Hunt said. “You figure the times at Thompson Park will be about 15 seconds slower than the ones at Washington Crossing Park. That would put Zach at about 17:30.”
    Of course, health, weather, course conditions and the pace of the race will also factor into the times. That is, as had been said millions of times, why they bother to run the race.