The Muhlenberg men’s cross country team was all set to shoot for a second-place finish at the Centennial Conference Championships. The weather forecast may change those plans.

The Mule men and women will travel to Dickinson to compete in the CC meet tomorrow. The

Rothwell was 16th at the CC meet last year.

men’s race is scheduled for 11:00, with the gun for the women’s race slated to go off at noon.

Heavy rain is expected in the Carlisle area tonight through tomorrow morning, and although it may stop before the meet, it will have an effect on the competition.

“Usually wetter weather will kind of level the playing field,” said men’s co-captain Tim Seeley. “Haverford is ranked eighth in the country, but hopefully we

Mideast Region Poll (men) school points 1. Haverford 79 2. Carnegie Mellon 73 3. Allegheny 64 4. MUHLENBERG 53 5. Elizabethtown 49 6. Salisbury 34 7. Dickinson 31 8. Swarthmore 27 9. Johns Hopkins 17 10. Messiah 8 (women) school points 1. Dickinson 90 2. Haverford 81 3. Allegheny 61 4. Swarthmore 53 5. Elizabethtown 50 6. Salisbury 49 7. Johns Hopkins 35 8. Messiah 32 9. MUHLENBERG 14 10. Carnegie Mellon 10

can take a shot at them.”

Haverford is ranked eighth and has won the previous 13 CC titles. The closest a team has come to the Fords was in 2002, when Muhlenberg finished second by 11 points.

Since then, the Mules have come in fourth three years in a row, last season ending up 14 points behind second-place Dickinson and just one behind third-place Swarthmore.

Those three teams – all ranked in the top eight in the region – are once again expected to battle it out for second place. Muhlenberg split with Dickinson in two head-to-head meetings and finished well ahead of Swarthmore in its last two meets of the regular season.

“The season has been great so far, but the postseason is a whole new season,” remarked Seeley. “Everybody has a clean slate, and everything that we did before doesn’t mean anything.”

Seeley is one of five Mules ranked among the top 20 runners in the conference by the coaches. Senior Lex Mercado is fourth, senior Stephen Rothwell is seventh, Seeley is 14th, and sophomores David Chorney and Timothy Van Syckle are 19th and 20th, respectively. Haverford has nine runners in the top 20, and Swarthmore (with three) is the only other school with more than one.

“We know what we want to do, and we know what we’re capable of,” said Seeley. “As long as we perform like we have been, we’ll be fine.”

The Muhlenberg women also have had a fine season, one that has them ranked ninth in the region. Of the eight teams ahead of them, four are from the CC. The Mules finished fifth at the CC Championships last year, one place off their program-best showing of 2004.

Junior Sara Gearin (19th) is the lone Muhlenberg runner ranked in the top 20 in the CC, but the team has received strong performances from sophomores Laura Lipari, Janette Adams and Kathryn Niedzwiecki and juniors Christy Goff and Laura Clinton down the stretch.

Click here for the meet site.