District 2 of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association has set schedules and made plans for spring sports championships.

The Class AA boys’ tennis tournaments get started May 4.

Montrose is 3-4 and has a shot at making the tournament.

Team play is May 4 and 8.

Singles competition is May 10 and 11 with doubles play May 17-18.

The first day of each tournament is scheduled for Kirby Park in Wilkes-Barre and Wilkes University.

The Class AA boys’ track and field championships are May 15, beginning at 3 p.m. at Scranton Memorial Stadium. Class AA includes Blue Ridge, Elk Lake, Montrose, Mountain View and Susquehanna. The Class AA meet is one day after Class AAA competition.

The Class AA boys’ volleyball tournament will be held May 21, 22 and 24. Mountain View and Forest City have the best chance of making the eight-team field. Elk Lake, Susquehanna and Blue Ridge are nearing elimination.

The top two seeds will host quarterfinal doubleheaders with the top remaining seed hosting the semifinal doubleheader.

District 2 will hold open tournaments in baseball and softball.

Montrose, Elk Lake and Mountain View are among the 15 Class AA teams in baseball while Blue Ridge, Susquehanna and Forest City are among the seven Class A teams.

Montrose has a shot at one of the top seeds in Class AA.

Class AA dates are May 21, 23 and 25 and Class A are May 22 and 24 before the tournaments end with finals May 30.

The softball tournament is very similar to baseball with the same dates being used.

Mountain View is Class A in softball and part of the eight-team field while Class AA has 14 teams.

Montrose and, possibly, Elk Lake are fighting to be among the top Class AA seeds.

WEEK IN REVIEW

Montrose is alone in the Lackawanna League Division 3 baseball lead after beating former co-leader Lackawanna Trail, 3-1, then hammering Forest City, 17-5.

Mike Rapisardi had two hits and drove in two runs while Jared Winn allowed just two hits in 5 2/3 innings of scoreless relief pitching against Lackawanna Trail.

In girls’ track, Elk Lake downed Mid Valley, 83-58, Thursday for first place in Division 3 of the Lackawanna Track Conference.

Kristen Hollister swept the three sprints while Megan Bush set a school record in the shot put.

In professional hockey, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins handled the Hershey Bears, 3-1 and 7-2, in the first two games of the American Hockey League’s Calder Cup playoffs.

In professional baseball, the Binghamton Mets moved above .500 in the Eastern League with a four-game sweep of the Portland Sea Dogs Thursday through Sunday.

The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees also won four straight to reach .500 at 8-8 in the International League.

COLLEGE CORNER

Two Susquehanna graduates helped teams at northeastern Pennsylvania colleges set school records.

Lackawanna College sophomore Dustin Barton shot a 4-under-par, 68 to win the individual title at the Brookdale Invitational Tournament at Charleston Springs Golf Course in Millstone Township, N.J.

Barton helped Lackawanna shoot a school-record, four-player total of 288 while winning the championship.

“The school has been fortunate to qualify for the D-II National Championship five of the last six years,” Lackawanna coach Patrick Lloyd said. “But, today’s performance was something that no other team that I have had the opportunity to coach has accomplished.

“Our schools were all in the 70s or better and our team score was 16 shots better than our closest opponent, Raritan Valley.”

Marywood University senior Dan Downton singled in the tying run and scored the winner Saturday in a 6-5, come-from-behind win over Baptist Bible College for the 20th win of the season.

The Pacers, who had won 19 in 2002, added another win in the second game of the doubleheader.

THE WEEK AHEAD

The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins are in Hershey Wednesday with a chance to finish off the best-of-three series.

If the series continues, Game Four would be Friday in Hershey and Game Five would be Saturday in Wilkes-Barre.

In high school softball, Montrose is at Elk Lake Monday, April 30.

Entering this week, Montrose was tied for first and defending champion Elk Lake was a game back in third place.

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

HAMLIN WINS AT KANSAS

KANSAS CITY, Kan.—Denny Hamlin got his second Sprint Cup win of the season, by passing Martin Truex with 30-laps to go in the 267-lap race, then holding off two hard challenges by Truex.

“The car was good, but the team really freed it up about midway, and from then on, we were able to run up front,” said Hamlin. “It was a great team effort. When I started to catch Martin, I was wondering if I had enough car to get by him.

“We were getting all we could there at the end, and it was just enough to keep him from getting back around us.

It was Hamlin’s first victory at the 1.5-mile Kansas track, and the 19th of his career.

“I feel sorry for Martin and Michael Waltrip (car owner). I know they needed a win, but so did we.”

Denny Hamlin, winner of Sunday's Cup race at Kansas.

Furnished by Toyota, Truex drove a great race and led the most laps, and even though he mounted two late-race challenges with three laps to go, it wasn’t enough to catch the speedy Hamlin.

After a late round of green-flag pit stops put all the leaders on the same sequence, the sun broke through the clouds and changed the complexion of the race.

Until the last 40 laps, Truex had been dominant; having led 173 laps, but the changing weather conditions caused a handling problem with his No. 56 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota.

“Something happened to our car, I don’t know what.” said Truex. “When we came out of the pits on that last set of tires, it was different. We had lost some of our speed. Until the end, we were running so well. We were the fastest car on the track.

“I feel like we just gave one away today.”

Jimmie Johnson finished third, but he never contended for the lead. Matt Kenseth was fourth, while his teammate, Greg Biffle, last week’s winner was fifth.

“It’s not the finish we wanted,” said Biffle. “We were hoping for another win, but we were a little off. The nose was sliding around, and we were loose at times.”

Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kasey Kahne, Carl Edwards, and Kyle Busch were the remaining top-10 finishers.

Top-12 leaders after 8 of 36: 1. Biffle-312, 2. Truex-297, 3. Kenseth-295, 4. Earnhardt-291, 5. Hamlin-289, 6. Harvick-287, 7. Johnson-275, 8. Stewart-265, 9. Edwards-251, 10. Newman-249, 11. Bowyer-227, 12. Logano-221.

JAMES BUESCHER GETS FIRST TRUCK WIN

James Buescher pulled away in the closing laps to score a convincing 5.320-second victory over Timothy Peters, with three laps left in Saturday's SFP 250 at Kansas Speedway.

Brad Kesekowski, Nelson Piquet, Todd Bodine, Ron Hornaday, Justin Lofton, Parker Kligerman, Ty Dillon, and Miguel Paludo were the remaining top-10 finishers.

Top-10 leaders after 4 of 22: 1. Peters-163, 2. Buescher-159, 3. Lofton-152, 4. T. Dillon-149, 5. Piquet-140, 6. Kligerman-137, 7. Hornaday-129, 8. King-124, 9. White-120, 10. Crafton-115.

“TOO WHITE” DRIVER REJECTED BY NASCAR

Michael Rodriguez, a Hispanic driver from Pennsylvania, filed a complaint in U.S. District Court, alleging that NASCAR denied him opportunity to compete in the 2005 and 2006 Drive For Diversity, because he was “too white.”

Rodriguez stated in his complaint that he believes he was discriminated against because of his light complexion. According to his claim, he is of Puerto Rican and Spanish descent and identifies himself as Puerto Rican. He states in his claim that he is blue-eyed and fair-skinned.

NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program was created to develop minority drivers and crewmen and help them advance through the NASCAR ranks with the goal of reaching the sport’s top series. It was administered by Access Communications.

NASCAR puts most of the onus on Access as far as the legal liability for choosing diversity drivers, but NASCAR also backed Access attorneys, who stated in their summary judgment brief that “the act of excluding (Rodriguez) from an affirmative action program because he appeared to be Caucasian is consistent with NASCAR's stated goals of recruiting drivers who would change the face of NASCAR and make it look more like America.”

Access attorney Dhamian Blue followed later, reiterating what Access argued in its summary judgment brief, saying that the color of a driver’s skin can be proper criteria for an affirmative action plan.

“NASCAR recognized their need to change the face of NASCAR,” Blue said. “The ultimate desire was to pan across pit road and see minority drivers and minority crewmen. … When you talk about changing the face of NASCAR, color weighs very heavily.”

PATTIE PETTIE OUSTED AT VICTORY JUNCTION

If the planned Victory Junction Midwest becomes a reality, it likely will be without the help of Pattie Petty, the driving force who created the original NASCAR-themed camp in North Carolina for children with chronic diseases.

The Victory Junction board of directors has informed Petty, wife of former NASCAR driver Kyle Petty and daughter-in-law of Hall of Famer Richard Petty, that she will no longer be part of the day-to-day operations of the camp. The board has offered her emeritus status, but she is balking at serving in a purely ceremonial role.

“They don't want anything to do with me,” said Pattie Petty, who has been living in Kansas City part time while raising funds for the camp. “They gave me not one reason. They said they wanted to make a change, and I'm not sure what I did wrong, but the word came back to me I was making irrational decisions.

“Two board members who wanted me to leave gave me an ultimatum to never go to the camp, not talk to anybody with the camp. It was probably the most hurtful thing that's ever happened to me in my life.”

John McKee, president of Victory Junction and who was hired by Pattie Petty, said he has been instructed by the board not to have any comment "because there is an ongoing employment negotiation.”

Weekend Racing: It’s on to Richmond’s .75-mile short track for the Cup and Nationwide teams. The trucks do not race again until May 18.

Fri., Apr., 27, Nationwide 250, race 7 of 33; Starting time: 7 pm ET; TV: ESPN2.

Sat., Apr. 28, Sprint Cup Richmond 400, race 9 of 36; Starting time: 7 pm ET; TV: FOX.

Racing Trivia Question: Who drives the No. 3 truck in the Camping World Truck Series?

Last Week's Question: Who is the oldest driver still running a partial Cup schedule? Answer. Ken Schrader. He will be 57 years old in May.

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