SPORTS

Main News
County Living
Sports
Schools
Church Announcements
Classifieds
Dated Events
Military News
Columnists
Editorials/Opinions
Obituaries
Archives
Subscribe to the Transcript

 

Call Today To Book Your Ad For Our Annual Mother's Day Special Running May 7th

Please visit our kind sponsor

Issue Home May 14, 2008 Site Home

HEADLINES:
Local Sports Scene
NASCAR Racing

The Gift Of Golf


Elk Lake Girls Take Division Track Title
By Tom Robinson

The Elk Lake girls’ track and field program has built a reputation on the distance runners who, in the fall, have developed into a team that finished second in the state in Class AA in 2007.

The Warriors proved they had much more than just distance runners while winning the Lackawanna League Division III championship with an unbeaten record.

Allison Hall, who was on three winning relay teams for Blue Ridge at Thursday's Jordan Relays.

Photo by Ellen Bugno

Elk Lake produced balance across a variety of events and used it to get through strong challenges from Blue Ridge and Carbondale and again in last week’s league finale against Lackawanna Trail.

“Where another team had distance runners to match up with us, we were able to beat them in the sprints,” Lady Warriors coach Will Squier said. “A team like Lackawanna Trail that had good sprinters, we were able to hang in with there and sweep them in distance.”

Lisa Ruppert and Rachel Owens, based on their cross country contributions, could have added even more power to the distance lineup, but were valuable to the team elsewhere. Ruppert led off the 3200 relay team, which may be the team’s strongest point in the postseason, and Owens anchored it. Distance runners Ellen Squier and Kim Caines handled the second and third legs.

Sophomore sprinter Caitie Good went undefeated in the league in the 100 and 200.

Emily Madrak in the three jumping events and Nicole Brooks in the three throwing events became the type of competitors who could always be counted on to score points in the multiple events. They picked up several wins along the way.

Elk Lake may not have matched the depth of all of its opponents, but the ability of key contributors to consistently pile up points in multiple events got the team through to the championship.

When it was over, coach Squier decided to slow the team down in preparation for the District 2 Class AA championships and the state meet.

Squier entered teams in just two events at last week’s Jordan Relays and decided to sit out this week’s Bob Spagna Lackawanna Track Conference Meet.

“We need to back out of racing,” Squier said. “We’re not coming to the league meet. We need to take a step back, have some hard workouts, refresh and get our confidence back.”

Squier said the cross country/track runners have held up well against some difficult challenges.

“The girls had expectations on them after coming off cross country season,” he said. “Being in the limelight and doing real well, it starts to nag on you. You have to stay good and have to train. There’s no rest.

“You have to sustain it and everybody is still coming at you… Mentally, it wears on you. My girls have just started to get to where we’re fighting with that.”

Squier believes the brief break from competition will help the team in its two most important meets of the year.

“They’ve weathered it,” he said. “They’ve shown the mental endurance and toughness and they’ve accomplished a lot the last few years.

“I’m proud of them. It’s nice to finish with a league championship. Now, we’re focused on districts.”

WEEK IN REVIEW

SCRANTON – The Blue Ridge team and Elk Lake’s 3200 relay were impressive in the Class AA girls’ division at the Jordan Relays Thursday night.

Blue Ridge won three of the six events and finished second with 43 points, just five less than first-place Scranton Prep.

Elk Lake’s 3200 relay team set a meet record.

Allison Hall and Lauren Findley were on each of Blue Ridge’s three winning relays.

Hall led off the distance medley relay team and anchored the 1200 medley relay and 1600 medley relay. Findley followed Hall in the distance medley and led off the other two events.

Megan Kleiner was on the distance and 1600 teams, Meghan Ragard was on the 1200 and 1600. Megan Lewis was on the distance and Kaitchen Dearborn the 1200.

The distance medley relay team set a meet record in 9:53.78.

Elk Lake’s 3200 relay team of Ruppert, Squier, Caines and Owens set a record by finishing in 9:57.77.

The final Division III girls’ track standings were: Elk Lake 7-0, Blue Ridge 6-1, Lackawanna Trail 5-2, Holy Cross 4-3, Carbondale 3-4, Mid Valley 2-5, Mountain View 1-6, Susquehanna 0-7.

The final Division III boys’ track standings were: Mid Valley 7-0, Lackawanna Trail 5-2, Elk Lake 5-2, Carbondale 5-2, Holy Cross 3-4, Blue Ridge 2-5, Mountain View 1-6 and Susquehanna 0-7.

Abington Heights, coached by Susquehanna native Frank Passetti, swept the Class AAA titles at the Jordan Relays and went 6-0 to win both the Division I boys’ and girls’ championships.

In high school softball, Elk Lake handed Carbondale its first league loss, allowing Blue Ridge to move within a half game of the lead.

In professional hockey, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and Philadelphia Phantoms split the first two games of the American Hockey League’s Calder Cup East Division finals.

COLLEGE CORNER

Amber Gaffey won the pole vault during the seven-team Delaware State Hornet Invitational to help Towson University to the team championship.

Gaffey, a freshman from Susquehanna, has also been competing in the discus for Towson, a Division I team.

Gaffey finished eighth out of 15 entries in the pole vault and 13th out of 22 in the discus during the Paul Kaiser Track and Field Classic at Shippensburg University April 26.

THE WEEK AHEAD

The District 2 Class AA track and field championships will be held Tuesday, May 13 at Scranton Memorial Stadium.

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

Back to Top

 

NASCAR Racing
By Gerald Hodges

The Racing Reporter

Bowyer Takes Victory After Junior Wrecks, Richmond, VA – Bizarre might be a good description for Saturday night’s Cup race at Richmond International Raceway.

Polesitter, Denny Hamlin led a race-record number of 381 laps.

Clint Bowyer, winner of Saturday night's Richmond race.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Kyle Busch provided a few laps of great racing for the lead, a battle that ended with Earnhardt being spun out by Busch on Lap 398.

And that led to Clint Bowyer getting by both Earnhardt and Busch, en route to his second career win in Cup competition.

“The fastest car does not always win,” said Bowyer, “You know, you've got to be able to be there for the taking, at least, and we were close enough to do just that.

“It was pretty wild out there. It was bound to happen. I was watching it and [owner Richard Childress] was on the radio saying, 'It's going to happen,' and sure enough it did happen.”

Hamlin owned the race until he had a tire go flat with the end in sight, on Lap 383.

He stopped his car on the track and NASCAR invoked a two-lap penalty for intentionally causing a caution.

After the restart, Earnhardt and Busch battled several laps for the lead with Earnhardt taking over, much to the delight of the fans. Their cheers turned to boos a few laps later when the two drivers scraped together and Earnhardt spun, hitting the outside wall.

That set the stage for a green, white, checker finish – with Bowyer holding off Busch for the last two laps.

“Just a bummer of a deal,” said Busch, “We were both racing hard there.”

With the crash, Earnhardt Jr.’s winless streak extended to 72 races.

“I’m out there trying to win and you saw it tonight, I came in with a wrecked race car and finished 15th,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “I could have let Kyle go. He was faster and finished second or third or whatever. But I would have got a lot of bad press for that.

"As mad as I am about that situation and as much as is going to be made of it in the coming week, the real injustice is this team didn't get what they deserved.”

While Bowyer was celebrating in victory lane, Michael Waltrip was trying to explain to NASCAR officials why he continued to push Casey Mears' car after an accident between the two. Mears pinched Waltrip into the outside wall, causing both cars to make contact. Waltrip continued the skirmish after the cars slowed down.

It was another good performance for veteran Mark Martin, who finished third. Rounding out the top-10 were Tony Stewart, Martin Truex, Jr., Ryan Newman, Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon and Kasey Kahne. Earnhardt wound up 15th. Hamlin was 24th.

Top 10 Chase contenders after 10 of 36: 1. Kyle Busch-1495, 2. Burton-1477, 3. Earnhardt-1391, 4. Bowyer-1372, 5. Harvick-1350, 6. Hamlin-1349, 7. Johnson-1318, 8. Stewart-1297, 9. Biffle-1269, 10. Edwards-1230.

Top 10 Nationwide Series leaders after 11 of 35: 1. Bowyer-1565, 2. Edwards-1556, 3. Kyle Busch-1553, 4. Ragan-1434, 5. Bliss-1424, 6. Reutimann-1407, 7. Keselowski-1382, 8. Leffler-1342, 9. M. Wallace-1297, 10. Stremme-1177.

Stewart Helps Out Morgan Shepherd – Tony Stewart decided to help out Morgan Shepherd’s underfunded Nationwide Series team this past Friday night at Richmond.

Shepherd simply did not have the money to buy enough tires for the entire race. Tires cost around $400 each, and if a team uses 20 tires during a race, the cost would be around $8,000.

Stewart said he “just felt like doing it.”

“Morgan is a great guy,” Stewart said. “Everybody loves Morgan to death. There are a lot of people in the stands that don’t realize who Morgan Shephard is. They think he’s just some guy who drives a green race car that says ‘Racing with Jesus’ every week.

“They don’t understand that years ago he used to be one of the top guys in the Cup series. They don’t realize that he lost everything and is rebuilding everything now. It just shows that there are a lot of people that care about him as a person and respect him – not only as a race-car driver, but as a human being. You can do something like that to help out. It’s worthwhile and it’s somebody that deserves the help.

“I respect guys like Morgan that still work out of their own garage and do the work themselves and still come out here and race against Childress, Gibbs and Roush every week and still go out there with the attitude that we’re going to do the best we can.”

All-Time NASCAR Elite, Mark Martin – Mark Martin can't believe his career is almost over. And he's saying exactly the same thing now that he said back in the spring – that he's having the time of his life, running a part-time schedule as driver of DEI’s No. 8 U S Army Chevrolet.

Martin left Roush Racing at the end of 2006. He and Jack Roush had been together for 18 years, but at the age of 48, Martin said he needed some breathing room from the pressures of Cup racing, and to spend more time with his family.

His 2007 season was a roller-coaster ride. He began the season employed by Ginn Racing, but in late July, Ginn Racing basically was folded into Dale Earnhardt Inc., and Martin's world changed, for the best.

“It's exactly what I wanted to do, and it was the best decision of my life,” he said. “I'm the happiest I've ever been, and I couldn't have a better life right now.”

His 35 Sprint Cup wins put him fourth on the win list among active drivers and 17th on the all-time list. He started 621 consecutive Sprint Cup races between 1988 and 2007, the fifth-longest streak in NASCAR history.

Martin’s 41 Cup poles are the fifth most in Cup history, and ranks fifth all-time in the Sprint Cup point standings.

Martin has started 704 Cup races, finishing inside the top 10 on 388 occasions, inside the top five 240 times and visiting winner’s circle 35 times. His 48 career wins in the Nationwide Series are a NASCAR record.

Martin’s 13 victories in IROC competition are the most ever. Martin has won a record five championships in the IROC series, including a record three straight. His strongest run of the season was three weeks ago at Phoenix, Martin led 68 laps and was the strongest car down the stretch at Phoenix, but lost out on fuel mileage.

“I've really enjoyed working with the U.S. Army team," said Martin, who shares the No. 8 DEI car with Aric Almirola. “Making the move to a new group, working with Chevy, all the changes have all been positive for me. Being able to be a part of Dale Earnhardt Incorporated is a real honor. It opens up a new challenge.

“There are things there that I will be able to do, probably for a long time, based on my amount of experience that I have and all the youth that is there at the company at this time. They are great, fabulous people. They have talent in all aspects of the company – and they have welcomed me with open arms... I'm living a dream.”

When asked what was best about racing part-time, he replied: “Quality time with my wife and son. That's by far been the best. It's just been so good. I'm not saying there hasn't been any pressure; there has been huge pressure for me. But it's been a drop in the bucket compared to what I've dealt with the past 15 years.

“Instead of dragging out and being a grind, it's been a great year for me. I am so lucky to be driving this car, and working with these people, and doing what I love so much – when I want to do it.”

Next Week: Who Will Fill the Legacy of the Older Drivers?

WEEKEND RACING

Next Sunday is Mother’s Day and NASCAR has a policy of not racing on that day. The Nationwide and Sprint Cup teams will have Friday and Saturday night races at Darlington, South Carolina.

Friday, May 9: Nationwide Series Diamond Hill Plywood 200, 7 p.m. TV: ESPN2.

Saturday, May 10: Sprint Cup Dodge Challenger 200, 367 laps, 7 p.m. TV: Fox.

Racing Trivia Question: Jimmy Spencer hasn’t raced since 2006. What are his future plans?

Last Week’s Question: Jeremy Mayfield is out as the driver of the No. 70 Cup car. Who replaced him? Answer: Johnny Sauter is the new driver.

You may contact the Racing Reporter at: hodgesnews@earthlink.net.

Back to Top


News  |  Living  |  Sports  |  Schools  |  Churches  |  Ads  |  Events
Military  |  Columns  |  Ed/Op  |  Obits  | Archive  |  Subscribe