Linnell comes up golden in MOC 1,600 final
BY TIM MORRIS Staff Writer
Talent alone doesn't win state championships. There has to be a desire, a hunger for it. No one will question if Colts Neck's Allison has that intangible after her magnificent win in the girls 1,600 meters Thursday night at South Plainfield.

ERIC SUCAR staff Colts Neck High School senior Allison Linnell is congratulated by former teammate Ashley Higginson after winning the girls 1600-meter run at the NJSIAA Track and Field Championships held at South Plainfield High School on June 5.

Linnell seized control of a wide-open race just before the bell lap and used a 68.7 closing quarter to win her first NJSIAA Meet of Champions (MOC) title.

"I've never won a big race like this," she said moments after her triumphant victory in 4:54.87. "It's so unreal."

On second thought, not so unreal. The Cougar senior ran a perfect race. She stayed with the leaders through an honest 2:30 in her first 800. On the penultimate lap, as often happens in championship races, no one wanted to take the lead. As the field headed for the bell lap playing the waiting game, Linnell, who has used mid-race surges before to break the competition, took off.

"With 500 [meters] to go I said 'I'm going to go for it,'" she said. "If the pace was hard, I was going to make a soft move, and if it was slow, a hard move.

"The pace was hard and I still made a hard move," she added.

As Linnell put the hammer down, no one responded and a small but significant gap opened.

Not known for her finishing kick, Linnell held onto the lead down the backstretch with 150 meters to go. Her challengers were quickly running out of room. Roxbury'sAshley Cromartie made a small dent in the lead, but it was much too late to change the outcome. Linnell was 10 meters clear and not about to be caught.

"I really wanted to win," she pointed out. "I really wanted it."

Waiting for her at the finish line was her former teammate Ashley Higginson, last year's MOC 3,200 winner who is now running for Princeton University.

"Ashley has been so supportive," Linnell said.

Linnell joined Higginson as the only Cougars to win outdoor MOC titles. She and Howell's Lindsey Gallo (1998) are the only Freehold District girls to win the 1,600 at the MOC. Linnell has officially become one of the area's greatest distance runners.

Manalapan's Robby Andrews was in perfect striking distance when the bell lap for the boys 1,600 bellowed. He was tucked in third place some 10 meters behind the leader Brett Johnson of Ocean City and Franklin's Jermaine Coore.

Having won from this position so often in the past year, it would only be a matter of time before he stepped on it and went by everyone.

Andrews had a 58-second last quarter in his legs and went by Coore, but Johnson had a 56. What looked like an ideal scenario for the Brave wasn't so after all.

"It was set up for him," said Andrews. "He's a tremendous athlete. He ran the perfect race.

"I knew he had a great kick coming in," he added. "I was hoping he used up most of his energy leading."

Johnson never faltered, stopping the clock in a meet record 4:09.03. Andrews came home in 4:11.65 in second.

"I ran my best 1,600 of the year, I can't be disappointed," said Andrews.

Andrews, who was looking for his first outdoor MOC title (he was the indoor 800 champion) had the consolation of breaking the Braves' school record. The former record (4:11.8), set by the Braves' MOC champion Tom Fischer, had stood for 26 years.

Marlboro's remarkable Ada Unachukwu broke the Shore Conference triple jump record, becoming its first 40- footer in the event. Unachukwu hit 40-0 on the nose in finishing second behind Shanaie Herber of JFK Paterson and her 40-7.

"It's exciting I got my best jump in this meet," said the Marlboro junior. "I'm very happy.

"Today I focused on carrying my legs through at the end of the jump," she added.

Doing some jumping jacks didn't hurt either. Having run her 100-meter heat and final (fifth in the final in 12.23), Unachukwu said she did jumping jacks between jumps (there were 42 competitors in the girls triple jump) to stay loose.

The second place ties Unachukwu's best finish in a MOC event and raised the possibility of a MOC title in her future.

"It would be great to be a state champion," she remarked. "As long as I keep improving I'll be satisfied."

Unachukwu was the only local athlete to win two medals at the MOC.

Freehold Township's DanMularz made the biggest move of the meet, 17th to third place.

The Patriot hurdler had finished seventh and out of the medals at the State Group IV championships, and made it to South Plainfield as a wild card.

The wild card got wilder for Mularz when he went to sign in prior to his race only to discover that his registration card had been lost. After some negotiations with officials, he was allowed into the 400 intermediate hurdles after another runner had scratched. Mularz, who was seeded 17th, ran on the outside in lane eight, no man's land.

Fortunately, while becoming one of the state's best, he'd had practice running solo.

"I've been running by myself most of the time," he pointed out.

When he settled into the blocks for his race, Mularz decided to vent his frustrations out on the track.

"I just ran angry," he said.

That anger produced an easy win in a personal best 53.9. By the time all of the heats had been run, Mularz's mark had stood up as the third best.

"I just wanted to have fun and place in the top eight," said the Bucknell University bound Mularz, who certainly succeeded in fulfilling his goal.

Mularz's teammate, Marcus Goode, medaled in his final New Jersey meet. He was eighth in the triple jump (44-5½).

Colts Neck's Mark Leininger came up with his fastest 3,200, 9:24.58, and was 13th. His freshman teammate Mike O'Dowd lowered his best time to 9:33.72 in finishing 22nd.

In the girls 3,200, Howell's Lindsey Lambert dipped up 11:00 for the first time, clocking 10:53.85 in 14th place.

Out in the field, Freehold Borough's Blair Hassell threw the javelin 116-1 and was 18th.