Montrose has succeeded on the diamond and Elk Lake has done the same on the track early in the spring sports season.

When the week started, Montrose was 4-0 in both baseball and softball while Elk Lake was 3-0 in boys’ and girls’ track. As a result, the Montrose softball team and both Elk Lake track teams were alone in Division 3 leads. Montrose shared the Division 3 baseball lead with Lackawanna Trail as the teams prepared to meet Monday in Montrose.

The Meteors improved to 7-0 overall while allowing just one run in two league baseball games last week.

Mike Rapisardi struck out eight in a five-hit shutout to stop Western Wayne, 5-0.

Dale Harder went 3-for-4 to lead the offense.

Casey O’Reilly broke up a scoreless tie with a three-run, sixth-inning home run in a 3-1 victory over Susquehanna.

Jared Winn threw a three-hitter with 10 strikeouts.

The softball team used fast starts in its two wins.

The Lady Meteors scored three in the first and four in the third for a seven-run lead after 2 1?2 innings on the way to a 7-3 victory at Western Wayne. Then, they did all the scoring in the top of the first and used a shutout from Lacy Neely to beat Susquehanna, 4-0.

Elk Lake swept the boys’ and girls’ meets from Mountain View for its latest track wins.

WEEK IN REVIEW

The Binghamton Senators completed a drop from first to worst but managed to close out the American Hockey League season with some bright spots.

The defending Calder Cup champions had the worst record in the 30-team league at 29-40-5-2.

Binghamton picked up a road win over the rival Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, 3-1, Friday night then made the Norfolk Admirals work for their North American professional record 27th straight win, 3-2, in overtime Saturday night before a sellout crowd at the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena.

Norfolk has the league’s best record and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton enters the playoffs as the fourth-seeded team in the Eastern Conference.

Robin Lehner made 26 saves and held Wilkes-Barre/Scranton scoreless over the final 52:49.

The Senators ended Norfolk’s regulation winning streak at 20 games, but defenseman Mark Barbeiro scored on the power play at 2:04 of overtime to keep the other streak intact.

In high school softball, Blue Ridge’s Jackie Furch threw a no-hitter with 15 strikeouts in a 3-0 win over Susquehanna.

In boys’ volleyball, Mountain View and Forest City finished the week 3-3 and in fourth place in the Lackawanna League behind Western Wayne, Abington Heights and Lackawanna Trail.

COLLEGE CORNER

Blue Ridge graduate Jared Conklin won the discus for the Keystone College men at the Gywnedd-Mercy Mid-Week Twilight Invitational Thursday.

Conklin threw the discus 122-1 and finished third in the shot put with 43-9 1?4.

Forest City graduate Mike Kubus and Montrose graduate Brackney Brotzman also competed for the Giants.

Kubus was part of a 1600 relay team that scored a point for the team with its eight-place finish in 3:54.41. He also ran the 1500 meters in 4:55.99.

Brotzman, a four-year field hockey player at Keystone, ran the 800 meters in 2:58.18.

THE WEEK AHEAD

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton will open the Calder Cup playoffs against its other main rival in the AHL.

The Penguins are home Friday and Saturday at the Mohegan Sun Arena against the Hershey Bears in the first two games of a best-of-five series.

The series continues April 25 and 27 in Hershey and April 28 in Wilkes-Barre.

In high school track, Mid Valley is at Elk Lake in a Division 3 boys’ and girls’ meet. Mid Valley is 2-0 and second to Elk Lake in both sets of standings.

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

A DETERMINED BIFFLE WINS AT TEXAS

FT. WORTH, Tex. - A determined Greg Biffle finally put a win on the board, as he cruised to a 3.235-second victory over Jimmie Johnson in Saturday night's Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway.

“I just dug deep,” Biffle said. “I knew I had to do it and kept trying and trying and trying. I knew the team would forgive me if I wrecked it trying to beat him, so I gave it all I had. I was bound and determined to put this team back into victory lane tonight.”

From the moment he passed pole-sitter Martin Truex Jr. for the lead on Lap 180 of the 334-lap race, Johnson was dominant, but Biffle chased the five-time champion lap after lap through three cycles of green-flag pit stops.

Biffle frequently gained ground when Johnson hit traffic, but the margin would expand when Johnson got to clean air. The lead stayed at roughly one second until the race hit Lap 300. Mark Martin in third at 7.8 seconds back was the only other driver within 10 seconds of the leader.

With 34 laps left, Biffle turned up the pace. On Lap 304, as Johnson tried to work his way through traffic, Biffle made the pass for the top spot, sliding to the inside of Johnson's No. 48 Chevrolet as the cars approached the start/finish line.

Biffle said he was "foaming at the mouth" with Johnson in his sights, but he had to conserve fuel and save his tires for the first few laps of the final run after his last pit stop.

“I was a little short on fuel, so I kind of lifted a little early and let the car roll down through the corners,” continued Biffle, who expanded his series lead to 19 points over Earnhardt and Kenseth. “When he started catching a little bit of traffic, that's when I started going.”

Johnson took issue with drivers of lapped cars -- particularly the No. 39 of Ryan Newman -- who Johnson felt failed to show the respect due a race leader.

“When I caught lapped traffic, some guys that were multiple laps down didn't show much respect for myself, the leader,” said Johnson. “Before I knew it, the 16 (Biffle) was there inside of me and got by.”

Mark Martin came home third, followed by Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth, Martin Truex, Kasey Kahne, Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick, and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Top-12 leaders after 7 of 36: 1. G. Biffle – 273, 2. M. Kenseth – 254, 3, D. Earnhardt, Jr. – 254, 4. M. Truex Jr. – 253, 5. K. Harvick – 249, 6. D. Hamlin – 242, 7. T. Stewart – 234, 8. J. Johnson – 233, 9. R. Newman – 225, 10. C. Bowyer – 219, 11. C. Edwards – 215, 12. P. Menard - 192.

STENHOUSE TAKES NATIONWIDE RACE

Streaking away from Denny Hamlin and pole-sitter Paul Menard after a restart with six laps left, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won Friday night's Nationwide race at Texas.

“I loved coming here, and we finally finished off a race,” said Stenhouse, who promised a traditional cowboy hat that goes to the victor to every member of his team. “I felt a lot better coming into this year, obviously, with the championship from last year, but one thing that I do enjoy about this is that we're running up front every week.”

Menard finished second, with Kasey Kahne passing Hamlin for third in the closing laps. Austin Dillon ran fifth, followed by David Ragan, Justin Allgaier, Danica Patrick, Michael Annett, and Steve Arpin.

Patrick’s team brought her into the pits during a late race caution for four fresh tires, which allowed her to pass several other drivers who stayed out.

“It's always quite chaotic when you have such great tires along with everyone around you,” Patrick said. “It's two-wide -- and you want to get by them. But, all in all, it's nice to have a good finish for the team, for everybody that works really hard. We've kind of had a tough going to the start of the year, so that was fun.”

Top-10 points leaders after 6 of 33: 1. Sadler-247, 2. Stenhouse-243, 3. A. Dillon-227, 4. Hornish-193, 5. Annett-183, 6. Whitt-182, 7. Bayne-180, 8. Malsam-163, 9. Allgaier-163, 10. Bliss-147.

KAHNE WINS “ROCK’ TRUCK RACE

Here are the top-10 finishers of Sunday’s NASCAR Truck race at Rockingham, NC.

1. Kasey Kahne, 2. James Buescher, 3. Matt Crafton, 4. Johnny Sauter, 5. Timothy Peters, 6. Joey Coulter, 7. Nelson Piquet, 8. Ty Dillon, 9. Parker Kligerman, 10. Justin Lofton.

Top-10 leaders after 3 of 22: 1. Peters-121, 2. Lofton-115, 3. T. Dillon-114, 4. Buescher-111, 5. Kligerman-101, 6. Piguet-100, 7. White-94, 8. King-93, 9. Hornaday-90, 10. Starr-84.

NASCAR ANNOUNCES NEW HOF NOMINEES

Last week NASCAR announced the 25 nominees that will be voted on for next year’s Hall of Fame. Following are the 25 nominees, listed alphabetically:

1. Buck Baker, first driver to win consecutive series titles. 2. Red Byron, first NASCAR series champion, in 1949, 3. Richard Childress, 11-time car owner. 4. Jerry Cook, six-time Modified champion. 5. H. Clay Earles, founder of Martinsville Speedway. 6. Tim Flock, two-time Cup series champion. 7. Ray Fox, legendary engine builder. 8. Anne Bledsoe France, wife of Bill France Sr. 9. Rick Hendrick, 13-time car owner champion. 10. Jack Ingram, two-time Busch Series champion and three-time Late Model Sportsman champion. 11. Bobby Isaac, 1970 series champion. 12. Fred Lorenzen, 26 wins. 13. Cotton Owens. 14. Raymond Parks, NASCAR's first champion car owner. 15. Benny Parsons, 1973 series champion. 16. Les Richter, former NASCAR executive. 17. Fireball Roberts, 33 NASCAR series wins. 18. T. Wayne Robertson, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. 19. Wendell Scott, the first African-American NASCAR series race winner. 20. Ralph Seagraves, executive with R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. 21. Herb Thomas, first two-time series champion. 22. Curtis Turner, called the “Babe Ruth of stock car racing.” 23. Rusty Wallace, 1989 NASCAR series champion. 24. Joe Weatherly, two-time NASCAR series champion. 25. Leonard Wood, part-owner and former crew chief for Wood Brothers.

Weekend Racing: The Sprint Cup and Truck teams will be at the 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway, while the Nationwide teams take a week off.

Sat., Apr. 21, Camping World Truck Series Union 225, race 4 of 22; Starting time: 1:30 pm ET; TV: SPEED.

Sun., Apr. 22, Sprint Cup STP 400, race 8 of 36; Starting time: 12:30 pm ET; TV: FOX.

Racing Trivia Question: Who is the oldest driver still running a partial Cup schedule?

Last Week's Question: Who won the inaugural Texas Motor Speedway Cup race? Answer. Jeff Burton.

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