Honors Student

Kelsey Mitchell's 100th career goal was as pretty as a plum dangling from a branch, waiting to be picked. The ball was suspended in midair when Mitchell, Eastern's and South Jersey's top scorer, used the reverse side of her stick to pluck it past Shawnee's goaltender en route to a 4-0 victory that claimed the South Jersey Group 4 field hockey crown Nov. 8. Mitchell closed the season with two more goals, making her the top scorer in the...

Caitlin Orr ran so hard in the 1,600 meters Friday at the NJSIAA South Jersey Group 4 championships at Egg Harbor Township that her legs turned to Jell-O when she crossed the finish line. An official and a teammate had to help the Lenape junior walk to a nearby fence, where she could lean and catch her breath. Orr did not win. She wasn't expected to. Southern Regional senior Jillian Smith, nationally recognized in the 800 to 3,200, won in 4 minutes, 55.7 seconds. However, Orr's second-place time of 4:59.

Eastern's Kelsey Mitchell has kept goalkeepers and other defenders on high alert inside the striking circle for the last three years. Keepers, in particular, have had to react quickly in the face of this Houdini with a hockey stick, and often they have guessed wrong as a shot whizzes or plops into the cage. This season, the calm and composed junior led Eastern and all of South Jersey in scoring with 37 goals. Added to her 29 as a freshman and 36 as a sophomore, Mitchell has 102 career goals, which has her on track to break a couple of records next season.

Lemuel Payne, accused in a hit-and-run in August that killed a 16-year-old girl in Delaware County, was held over for trial after a preliminary hearing yesterday in Sharon Hill District Court. Faith Sinclair, an honors student at Ridley High School, was crossing Chester Pike in Sharon Hill on her way to a sleepover Aug. 3 when she was hit by a black Mercedes-Benz that left the scene. Payne, of Upper Darby, owner of the car that police believe was involved, was arrested in October and charged with leaving the scene of the accident, tampering with evidence, and related offenses.

Florence catcher Chelsea Kehr remembers the parade fondly. There were fire engines, police cars and a party at someone's house in the township that encompasses 9.65 square miles between Bristol and Bordentown. And they were all there to celebrate the NJSIAA Group 1 state softball championship won by Kehr and her teammates last June. "We rode around the town in a bus with our heads out the windows and cars honking their horns," Kehr said. "There were flashing lights and people on front porches waving at us. The town came out to see us. "Florence is very sports-oriented.

For a bit longer, Tony McDevitt is going to have to curb his appetite for a Philly staple because there's this business that must be tended to, which is helping Duke's lacrosse team win the NCAA Division I national championship. "You can't find a good cheesesteak anywhere down here," McDevitt, a senior defender from Northeast Philadelphia, said the other day from Durham, N.C. "First of all, they call them steak and cheese, and that's the first mistake. And they put lettuce, tomatoes and mayonnaise on everything.

Dana Bieniek has a goal for this season, and she's not backing down. Bieniek (pronounced Bee-nik) wants to be the first softball player at her school, Rancocas Valley, to register 200 career hits. Her coach, though supportive, is concerned that other members of the team might misinterpret Bieniek's ambition as more personal than team-oriented. "There's nothing wrong with her having her own individual goals," said coach Deb Hauth. "But I've been coaching long enough to know that perception is reality.

While his friends sleep in on these lazy summer mornings, Daiquan Causey is usually up at 5:30 a.m. While his friends enjoy dinner at home and hanging out with one another, Causey doesn't even arrive home until 9 p.m. Causey, a Camden High School football player, has another agenda. Struggling to break free of what negative forces prevail in his neighborhood, Causey is working year-round toward graduating from high school, attending college, and becoming a professional football player.

The man on trial in the death of a 13-year-old honors student from West Philadelphia disrupted the courtroom again yesterday by tackling his attorney - despite being handcuffed and manacled at the waist. Peter Cook, 32, accused of killing Jasmine McDonald in 2003, lowered his shoulder and lunged into his lead counsel, Thomas McGill Jr., just before the Common Pleas Court proceedings recessed for lunch. He was immediately restrained by a throng of sheriff's deputies and law enforcement authorities.

The focus in the hunt for a missing College of New Jersey freshman took a grim turn yesterday - a dormitory trash chute that authorities inspected with a special tethered fiber-optic camera. A day earlier, investigators searched the 10-story building from top to bottom with cadaver-sniffing dogs. Investigators wanted to get a "good look inside the chute" at Wolfe Hall, where John Fiocco Jr., 19, a well-liked graphic-arts major from Sewell, lived on the fourth floor, said Capt.