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UNICO Soccer Match Set For June 4

Dean, Lundy, Squier, Hall Reach State Meet
By Tom Robinson

Moscow - Bob Dean has two District 2 Class AA discus championships and has re-established the Montrose school record several times.

As Dean heads into his final high school competition this week, he sees the likelihood that his record may not stand for long.

Dean repeated his district title and sophomore teammate Larry Lundy finished second while also qualifying for the state championships Thursday at North Pocono.

"I hope when I'm done, he does real well," Dean said. "He'll probably break my record."

Dean won with a throw of 151-9. Lundy went 12 feet beyond his previous best with a throw of 149-1 to exceed the state qualifying standard of 148-0.

Dean and Lundy moved into first and second with their final throws of the qualifying round then held their positions through three more throws by the top seven competitors. Dean had the only two throws over 150 in the competition.

"In practice the last two days I was just working on my technique," said Lundy, who found significant improvement just in time. "I got my arm out in front more."

Dean was the county's only district champion.

Lundy was one of three county athletes who qualified for a trip to Shippensburg for the state championship by meeting the preset qualifying standards.

Elk Lake's Robert Squier and Blue Ridge's Rachel Hall each qualified in the 3200-meter run.

The efforts of Dean and Lundy helped Montrose finish fifth of 19 teams in the boys' meet, just two points out of third place. Wilkes-Barre Meyers outscored Lakeland, 114-102. Lake-Lehman (47), Scranton Prep (46), Montrose (45) and Northwest (44) were in a tight pack in the next four spots.

Dean finished third in the javelin and fourth in the shot put. Lundy was third in the shot put.

Squier ran stride-for-stride with eventual record-setter Jonathan Pastore of Scranton Prep and Brad Baird of Lake-Lehman for the first six laps of the eight-lap race.

"I knew I was on the pace," Squier said after finishing third. "I died bad in the last lap."

By then, Squier had plenty of time to spare.

"Pastore really pushed this league," he said. "I think that's why District 2 is where it is (in distance running events).

"Everybody is aiming at him and he keeps improving."

Hall entered districts as the third seed in the 1600 and 3200. She scratched from the 1600 before the day started in order to pursue a state berth in her stronger event.

After running the fifth and sixth laps in about 1:32 each, she ran the last two in 1:28 and 1:24 finish in 11:39.24, more than four seconds better than the state standard.

"I thought my chances were better in the 3200," Hall said. "It was my best time ever. I had never broken 12 minutes."

Hall went well below that milestone after leading parts of the fourth and fifth lap against Dallas freshman Lisa Giacometti. The two leaders were more than 30 seconds ahead of the rest of the field.

The county produced four other silver medalists, including Blue Ridge discus thrower Katie Onyon, who missed the state standard by just two inches.

Hall, Onyon and Mindy Stanton, who finished third in both the shot put and discus, led Blue Ridge to a fifth-place finish in the girls' standings.

Western Wayne won with 95 points, followed by Meyers with 86, Lakeland with 81 and Hanover Area with 49.

Blue Ridge edged Montrose, 30-29.

Shot putter Charlene Slusser and the 3200-meter relay team led Montrose to sixth place by each finishing second.

Jeanne Roszel, Krista DeRiancho, Khayla Shearer and Kodie Morrison formed the silver-medal relay team.

Elk Lake's Jessica Squier, last year's 3200 champion, finished second in the 1600.

On the boys' side, Kyle Adriance took second in the high jump for Montrose. Kyle Stoddard added a fifth-place finish in the 400 and Joe LaBarbera was sixth in the pole vault.

Blue Ridge, the next-best county team, was well back in 13th place with seven points. Elk Lake was tied for 14th with six points while Mountain View and Susquehanna tied for 18th with one point.

Chad Burman scored all of Blue Ridge's points. Burman finished fourth in the long jump, fifth in the 300 hurdles and sixth in the 110 hurdles.

Mountain View's John Maher (high jump) and Susquehanna's Kevin Lee (1600) had sixth-place finishes.

Elk Lake finished 12th in the girls' standings with 15 points. Susquehanna was tied for 16th with eight.

Shannon Bennett was third in the 300 hurdles for Elk Lake.

Squier and Bennett then added to their individual silver and bronze medals by helping the 1600-meter relay team finish sixth in the last event of the night. Bridgette Teed, Bennett, Blaire Lord and Squier formed the relay team.

Jen Covert scored all of Susquehanna's points by finishing third in the triple jump and fifth in the 100 hurdles.

Montrose's Julie Teed (100 hurdles), Lori Cooper (javelin) and Roszel (3200) added fourth-place finishes while teammate Sheena Severcool (100) was sixth.

Blue Ridge's Alison McNamara (400) and Onyon (shot put) had sixth-place finishes.

WEEK IN REVIEW

Blue Ridge wrapped up an unbeaten Lackawanna League season with back-to-back softball no-hitters by Brittany Pavelski and Heather Franks. The Lady Raiders beat Susquehanna, 9-0, and Mountain View, 11-0.

Elk Lake won its third straight division baseball title by taking the Lackawanna League Class A North.

Both the Blue Ridge softball team and Elk Lake baseball team used their strong regular seasons to claim top seeds in the District 2 tournaments.

Mountain View finished the Lackawanna League season unbeaten in boys' volleyball.

In professional hockey, the Binghamton Senators fell behind, two games to none, in the American Hockey League's Calder Cup semifinals. The Hamilton Bulldogs beat the Senators, 5-1 and 2-1, in the first two games of the Eastern Conference finals.

THE WEEK AHEAD

The state track championships are Friday and Saturday at Shippensburg University.

District 2 baseball and softball play opens this week.

Elk Lake and Blue Ridge qualified for the eight-team Class A playoffs in both baseball and softball.

Pittston Seton Catholic was scheduled to play at top-seeded Elk Lake in baseball Tuesday. Lackawanna Trail was at Blue Ridge. If the teams both win, they would meet in Thursday's semifinals.

The two county teams are also in the same side of the softball bracket. Blue Ridge was scheduled to open at home against Carbondale Tuesday while Elk Lake played at Bishop Hafey.

Montrose was scheduled to open play in the 16-team Class AA tournaments Monday. As the lower-seeded team with a losing record, Montrose was on the road in both baseball and softball trying to get into Wednesday's quarterfinals. The baseball team played at top-seeded Bishop Hoban and the softball team was at Crestwood.

In volleyball, Mountain View was home Monday against Wilkes-Barre Meyers, needing a win to advance to Thursday's semifinals and finals.

In golf, Montrose's Dylan Maxey and Forest City's Mike Sterchak are on the Northern Division team for the Simons Cup all-star match among senior Lackawanna League golfers.

In the American Hockey League, Binghamton returned home for games Monday and Tuesday. If the Senators can extend the best-of-seven series to six games, they will be home again Friday at the Broome County Arena.

COLLEGE CORNER

Matt Orner, a junior outfielder from Susquehanna, is continuing his baseball career at East Stroudsburg University after a record-setting career at Keystone College.

Orner set a school record with eight triples last season.

In six games for East Stroudsburg, Orner is 3-for-18 (.167) with two runs, one double, an RBI, three walks and one stolen base. He has eight putouts and an assist without an error in the field.

In addition to playing baseball, Orner was an all-state football player and a district wrestling champion at Susquehanna.

TOM ROBINSON writes a weekly local sports column for the Susquehanna County Transcript. He can be reached on-line at RobbyTR@aol.com.

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NASCAR Racing
By Gerald Hodges; The Racing Reporter

JOHNSON'S Strategy Pays Off With Winston Win

Concord, NC - Jimmie Johnson's plan to save his best effort for the third and final segment of The Winston paid off for the driver of the No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet.

Jeff Gordon (left), Jimmie Johnson (right)

The $1 million first prize avenged his disappointment last year, when he won the first two segments only to wind up fifth at the end of the night.

"We got bit last year," said Johnson. "We knew if we were fourth to sixth we'd be all right. We played our cards right and did what we needed to do.

"We learned a lot last year winning those first two segments. The first segment we fell in behind Tony Stewart and was racing real hard and trying to understand what our car need for traffic.

"We made sure that we would be caught up in the inversion in some way that would benefit us, unlike last year."

But to get to the front Johnson had to get by his Hendrick teammate and car owner, Jeff Gordon. On lap 74 of the 90 lap race, Johnson made his move around Gordon.

"I didn't want to use the bumper on him, but I had to get going," said Johnson.

Ford driver Kurt Busch who had earlier won the second segment finished second.

"You've got to take calculated risk coming on pit road," said Busch. "There were a couple times when we should have pitted, but Jimmy (crew chief Fennig) said to stay out. I was thinking we should pit, but, all in all, you've got to keep your track position because when you go back it's difficult to pass cars when everybody is scrambling."

Bobby Labonte, driver of the No. 18 Interstate Batteries Pontiac finished third.

"We had a great race car all night," said Labonte. "We caught a couple lucky breaks there and had to check up a little, but it was a great night.

"It seemed like people got backwards or something happened, and obviously you can see that happen a lot here, so we're happy."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was caught up in a wreck and finished 17th.

"I really never saw what happened," said Earnhardt. "I saw a couple guys spin and I saw the 5 car get sideways and just didn't really know what to do.

"I think I ran into the back of somebody and I lost control of the car after that."

Top ten finishing order of The Winston (non-points race): 1. Jimmie Johnson, 2. Kurt Busch, 3. Bobby Labonte, 4. Joe Nemechek, 5. Michael Waltrip, 6. Matt Kenseth, 7. Kevin Harvick, 8. Jeff Gordon, 9. Jeff Burton, 10. Ricky Craven.

OTHER RACING

HORNADAY Wins Nazareth Busch Race – Ron Hornaday led 148 of the 200 laps to win Sunday's Busch Series Goulds Pumps 200 at Nazareth, PA.

Top ten finishing order: 1. Ron Hornaday, 2. Brian Vickers, 3. Mike Bliss, 4. David Green, 5. Todd Bodine, 6. David Stremme, 7. Randy LaJoie, 8. Stacy Compton, 9. Bobby Hamilton Jr., 10. Johnny Sauter.

DAVID GREEN Leads Busch Points – The top-10 Busch Series points leaders after 12 of 34 races: 1. D. Green-1646, 2. T. Bodine-1636, 3. Hornaday-1563, 4. Hmiel-1542, 5. Riggs-1531, 6. Keller-1517, 7. Bliss-1511, 8. J. Sauter-1486, 9. Vickers-1466, 10. Hamilton Jr.-1394.

MUSGRAVE Wins Inaugural Lowe's Truck Race – Here are the top ten results of the Craftsman Truck Series Hardees 200, run Friday night at Lowe's Motor Speedway, Concord, NC: 1. Ted Musgrave, 2. Brendan Gaughan, 3. Ricky Crawford, 4. Travis Kvapil, 5. Kevin Harvick, 6. Jeremy Mayfield, 7. Bobby Hamilton, 8. Chad Chaffin, 9. Matt Crafton, 10. Rich Bickle.

HAMILTON Is Truck Leader – The top-10 Craftsman Truck Series leaders after 5 of 25 races: 1. Hamilton Sr.-821, 2. Crawford-801, 3. Musgrave-771, 4. Gaughan-774, 5. Kvapil-729, 6. Setzer-684, 7. Cook-678, 8. Pressley-621, 9. Wood-617, 10. Leffler-614.

WEEKEND RACING

The NASCAR Busch and Winston Cup drivers see action this weekend in the longest race of the season at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte. The Craftsman Trucks have an off weekend.

Saturday, May 24, Busch Series Carquest Auto Parts 300, race 13 of 34, 200 laps/300 miles, 12:30 p.m. TV: FX Sports Channel.

Sunday, May 25, Winston Cup Coca-Cola 600, race 12 of 36, 400 laps/600 miles, 5 p.m. TV: Fox.

Racing Trivia Question: Which Winston Cup champion is known as, "The Silver Fox?"

Answer To Last Week's Question: Dale Earnhardt Sr. won seven NASCAR Winston Cup driving championships.

Gerald Hodges/the Racing Reporter is a syndicated NASCAR columnist. If you have a racing question that you would like answered send it to The Racing Reporter, P.O. Box 160711, Mobile, AL, 36616, or e-mail it to: hodgesnews@cs.com.

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UNICO Soccer Match Set For June 4

The Inaugural Scranton UNICO Soccer Cup Match of Lackawanna Conference High School Senior All-Stars, which is set for Wednesday, June 4, 6 p.m., at Lackawanna County Stadium, Moosic, will feature local and regional student-athletes.

Featured players from Susquehanna County schools include: Blue Ridge High School – Jarod Goff and Bradley Warren, New Milford; Forest City Regional High School – Jason Marsicano, Vandling, and Patrick Melvin, Forest City; Elk Lake High School – Gavin Davis, Meshoppen and Bob Minnick, Nicholson; Mountain View High School – Mike Belcher, Union Dale, Carrie Martens and Jake Scanlon, both of Harford, and Elizabeth Rivenburg, Kingsley.

There will be two teams featured in the tournament, which includes girls’ and boys’ matches.

All participating players are graduating seniors from the Lackawanna Soccer Conference and were selected to play in the match by the coaches of the League. Two games will be played during the match. The first game, featuring the girls’ teams, will begin at 6 p.m. The second game, featuring the boys’ teams, will start immediately following the conclusion of the girls’ game. Stadium gates will open at 5 p.m. Call 343–7009 for tickets.

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