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Elk Lake Teams Beat Mid Valley, Remain Unbeaten In Track
By Tom Robinson

Chelsea Karabin won the javelin and high jump Wednesday to lead an extremely balanced effort that led Elk Lake to a 105-44 rout of host Mid Valley in a meeting between the last two Lackawanna Track Conference Division 3 girls’ unbeatens.

The Lady Warriors won 13 of the 18 events, getting at least one win from 14 different athletes.

Elk Lake had four girls win one individual and one relay event, five win one individual event only and four more run on one winning relay.

Each of the members of the 1600-meter relay team also won another event. Kirsten Hollister won the 100, Cassie Van Etten the 400, Emily Williams the 800 and Kelcey Hermick the 200.

Cindy Good (100 hurdles), Maria Trowbridge (1600), Cassie Salsman (300 hurdles), Elizabeth Trowbridge (3200) and Meagan Bush (shot) also won.

Katie Bennett, Alayna Doolittle, Kenzie Jones and Jenny Van Etten formed the winning 3200 relay team.

Elk Lake is now 5-0 while Mid Valley is 4-1.

The Warriors are tied for first in the Division 3 boys’ standings with Blue Ridge at 5-0.

Mike Bedell won the 800 and 1600 and ran on the winning 1600 and 3200 relay teams to lead Elk Lake to a 92-58 victory over Mid Valley.

The tie for the Lackawanna Division 3 softball lead was also broken April 18 when Brooke Darling tossed a one-hitter with eight strikeouts in Elk Lake’s 2-1 win over Blue Ridge.

WEEK IN REVIEW

The Binghamton Senators and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins each advanced to the American Hockey League’s Calder Cup quarterfinals with first-round victories.

Both teams took dramatic steps to rally out of trouble in the first round.

Binghamton won with an historic effort, taking three straight overtime games after falling behind 3-1 in the best-of-seven series.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton won in six games, taking four straight after losing the first two games at home.

Each team finished its series victory Saturday night.

Ryan Potulny scored 3:07 into overtime for a 6-5 road victory over the Manchester Monarchs.

The Senators became just the second team in AHL history to win four overtime games in one series and the sixth to advance by winning Games Six and Seven on the road.

The series was the first in the league’s 75-year history to have Games Five, Six and Seven decided in overtime.

Potulny continued a productive series, which left him in the Calder Cup lead in goals (eight) and points (14). Five of those points came in Game Seven.

The Senators took a 3-0 lead in the first minute of the second period, but Manchester wiped out a three-goal deficit for the second time in the series and took a 5-4 lead in the third period.

Erik Condra’s second goal of the game with 1:45 left in regulation forced the fifth overtime game of the series, tying a league record.

Ryan Keller, who is fourth in Calder Cup scoring, had two goals and two assists.

The playoff series win was the first for the Senators since 2003.

Manchester built its series lead to 3-1 with a 6-3 victory April 19, its second straight at the Broome County Arena.

The Senators bounced back Wednesday to win their final home game of the series, 5-4, when Potulny rallied the team with two power-play goals in the third period and Kaspars Daugavins scored another 6:38 into overtime.

Robin Lehner made 51 saves and Geoff Kinrade scored just a second past the midway point of the second overtime to extend the series again with a 2-1 win Friday.

Steve Wagner’s first-period hat trick gave the Penguins an early three-goal lead and they pulled away again late in the clinching Game Six with a 6-3 home-ice win over the Norfolk Admirals.

The Penguins came back from a 2-0 series deficit for the fourth time. All the other AHL teams combined have made such a comeback just 19 times.

Wagner produced the first Calder Cup hat trick by a defenseman in six years when he scored twice on the power play in the first 3:58 and added another goal later in the period.

The Admirals closed within a goal twice, but Joe Vitale scored with 12:37 left then Tim Wallace and Zach Sill added late empty-net goals.

The Penguins started the series comeback with three straight wins in Norfolk, 2-1, 4-2 and 2-1.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton allowed fewer than two goals per game in the series. Game Six was the first time the Admirals scored more than twice.

Brad Thiessen finished the series first in the AHL in save percentage at .940 and second in goals against average at 1.68.

COLLEGE CORNER

Fordham University’s Jocelyn Dearborn, a senior third baseman and leadoff hitter from Blue Ridge, was named Atlantic 10 Softball Player of the Week for the second time this season April 11.

Dearborn hit .583 with three homers, eight runs, seven RBI and two stolen bases during the five-game week. In a doubleheader against LaSalle, Dearborn went 5-for-6 with a double, triple, homer and five RBI.

Fordham is 12-4 in the Atlantic 10 and 31-17.

Dearborn leads the team in just about every offensive category, including batting average (.391), homers (13), RBI (36), runs (34), hits (61), doubles (10), and triples (six). She has started every game to tie for the lead in games played (48) and walks (16) while ranking second in stolen bases (eight) without being caught.

THE WEEK AHEAD

Blue Ridge will be at Elk Lake Monday, May 2 in a meeting of the LTC boys’ track teams that are currently tied for the division at 5-0.

In professional hockey, the Binghamton Senators will meet the Portland Pirates in the second round of the Calder Cup playoffs.

The series opens Wednesday and Thursday in Portland.

Games Three through Five of the best-of-seven series are Saturday, then Monday and Tuesday, May 2-3, at the Broome County Arena.

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

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NASCAR Racing
By Gerald Hodges

Edwards Beats Busch At Nashville

By Gerald Hodges; The Racing Reporter

LEBANON, Tenn. - Carl Edwards returned to victory lane at Nashville for the first time since 2007, as he beat Kyle Busch to the finishy line by .521-seconds to win Saturday’s Nationwide Series race.

“At the end of the race, I was pedaling for all I had,” Edwards said. “I was kind of excited at the beginning of the race. I thought, ‘Boy, we’re going to run off with this thing. It’s going to be easy.’ Then at the end, that was white-knuckle. I was driving as hard as I can drive, racing him and Brad (Keselowski).

“In the end, it’s better to have a race like that, but it was really nerve-wracking for me.”

Edwards led lap 189 of 225, with Busch coming back to lead Lap 190. Edwards led Lap 191 and finally got clear of Busch, even as Keselowski was challenging from third.

Carl Edwards celebrates his Nationwide win at Nashville.

The victory was Edwards’ second of the season and 31st of his career - tying him for fourth all time with NASCAR Hall of Fame nominee Jack Ingram.

Busch was gunning for a weekend sweep after his victory in Friday night’s Camping World Truck Series race but came up short as his Toyota was “just not quite fast enough.”

“I didn’t quite finish that pass,” Busch said. “He had a really fast car. We could keep up with him momentarily but not for the whole run. It was a good show right there, a little bit of racing back and forth. …Brad was right behind us and kind of lurking in the distance there.”

Brad Keselowski finished third and Joey Logano fourth as Sprint Cup regulars swept the top four spots in the Nationwide Series’ first stand-alone race of the season. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was fifth for the best finish among Nationwide regulars and moved into a tie for the points lead with Justin Allgaier.

The remaining top-10 finishers were: Trevor Bayne, Austin Dillon, Reed Sorenson, Josh Wise, and Aric Almirola.

Top-10 leaders after 8 of 35: 1. Allgaier-264, 2. Stenhouse-264, 3. Leffler-262, 4. Sorenson-260, 5. Bayne-260, 6. Sadler-259, 7. Almirola-257, 8. Scott-228, 9. K. Wallace-216, 10. Annett-184.

KYLE BUSCH FIGHTS FOR TRUCK WIN

Kyle Busch had to work a little harder than he expected, but he still scored a win in the Camping World Truck race Friday night at Nashville Superspeedway.

“I felt like we had a dominant truck,” Busch said. “There with about 10 to go, the race really got started and got really interesting.”

Ron Hornaday passed Busch shortly after a restart with eight laps remaining. After another caution, though, Busch returned the favor, slipping under Hornaday in Turn 3 with two laps to go to complete a pole/victory sweep for the second year in a row at Nashville.

“Hornaday got a good restart and put enough drag on my spoiler that he kind of slowed me down on the frontstretch and stayed alongside me,” Busch continued. “I cleared him through (Turns) 1 and 2 and pulled up in front of him, but he had a little bit of momentum on me and pulled back to my inside down the backstretch and made a bold move driving it so far into the corner.”

Hornaday’s truck slid a little through Turn 3, and he and Busch moved up the track, with Hornaday grabbing the lead.

The yellow waved again, giving Busch a chance to turn the tables.

In the process, Busch led his 20,000th lap across the Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Truck series. In two truck races at Nashville, Busch has two wins, two poles and 271 of 300 laps led. The victory was Busch’s second of the season and 26th in the truck series.

“Kyle had the dominant truck all day, and he had clean air,” Hornaday said. “I had to wear my stuff out trying to stay with him. That restart, that’s the only opportunity I had to run with him. I just gave a show for the fans. That’s all I could do.”

With shot tires, Hornaday was also passed for position by rookie Nelson Piquet Jr. and Timothy Peters, who finished second and third, respectively.

Hornaday was fourth, followed by James Buescher, Matt Crafton, Johnny Sauter, David Starr, Craig Goess and Parker Kligerman.

Top-10 leaders after 5 of 24: 1. J. Sauter-187, 2. Peters-184, 3. Crafton-183, 4. Hornaday-182, 5. Whitt-175, 6. Dillon-163, 7. Bodine-148, 8. Rogers-144, 9. Papis-142, 10. Kligerman-136.

Other Racing News: If it weren’t for bad luck, former NASCAR driver Jeremy Mayfield wouldn’t have any luck at all. Mayfield was barred from racing by NASCAR after testing positive for drugs. He has since been involved in several lawsuits, including one with his former step-mother.

The latest twist happened on Friday, April 22.

When a mail carrier tried to deliver a package too big for Jeremy Mayfield's mailbox, she tried to drop it off at the home's front door, but when she went to the house, police said she was attacked by five dogs.

She was hospitalized with bite marks and cuts all over her legs, arms and shoulders. Police have confirmed that Mayfield came outside to intervene, scooping up the badly injured carrier and taking her back inside the home.

The police chief in Catawba, NC said the dogs are being quarantined for ten days because he is not sure if they are up to date on rabies shots. No decision has been made yet on what will happen to the dogs or if anyone will face charges.

Weekend Racing: The Cup and Nationwide teams are at Richmond, Virginia. The Truck teams have an off week.

Fri., Apr. 29, Nationwide Bubba Burger 250, race 9 of 35, Starting time: 7:30 p.m.; TV: Speed.

Sat., Apr. 30, Sprint Cup Crown Royal 400, race 9 of 36, Starting time: 7:30 p.m.; TV: FOX.

All times are Eastern.

Racing Trivia Question: When does Mark Martin plan on retiring?

Last Week’s Question: Where is Trevor Bayne’s hometown? Bayne was born in Knoxville, Tennessee in February 19, 1991.

You may contact the Racing Reporter at hodges@race500.com.

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