SHIPPENSBURG – The Elk Lake girls’ 3200-meter relay was in jeopardy of missing its trip to the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Track and Field Championships because of a botched handoff in the District 2 meet.

The Lady Warriors overcame the dropped baton to finish second at the district meet where the top two in each event reach states, then withstood an opponent’s lobbying for the team to be disqualified.

The handoffs were sharper at Shippensburg University in the state meet, allowing Elk Lake to post two impressive times and capture a bronze medal with a third-place finish.

Maria Trowbridge, Katie VanEtten, Kirsten Hollister and Jenny VanEtten entered the state meet as the 10th seed then beat their district time by almost 18 seconds to post the second-best time in Friday’s qualifying at 9:36.21.

In the extreme heat of Saturday morning’s finals, the Lady Warriors nearly duplicated that effort, finishing in third in 9:37.65.

District 2 rival Holy Redeemer, which arrived at the state meet as the first seed, also landed a state medal by finishing sixth.

In addition to its girls’ relay medal, Elk Lake also produced a medal in a boys’ individual event.

State cross country medalist Luke Jones opened Saturday’s competition by running the 3200 in 9:42.65 to finish eighth.

The top eight in each event receive state medals.

“The heat definitely affected everybody,” said Jones, who had run eight seconds faster at the district meet. “I knew the times wouldn’t be as good.

“I wanted to get out fast. I was trying not to get pinned in.”

Jones was unable to avoid that, getting caught in a pack of runners and disrupting his early laps as he ran behind other contenders.

District 2 record-setter Rico Galassi of Holy Cross finished second in 9:23.84, behind the 9:22.09 put up by state champion Brendan Shearn of North Schuylkill.

Montrose athletes narrowly missed two medals.

John Lawson was ninth in the javelin with a throw of 168-6, coming up nine inches short of a medal.

The girls’ 1600 relay team ran a 4:04.65 in Friday qualifying to finish 10th out of 26 teams. The Lady Meteors fell six-tenths of a second short of qualifying in the top eight and gaining a medal.

Montrose's Madelyn Pasteka and Brandon Russell each finished tied for 12th.

Pasteka cleared 5-0 in the girls’ high jump. Russell made 13-0 in the boys’ pole vault.

Elk Lake’s Jason Vermeulen was 13th in the boys’ long jump with 20-3 1⁄4.

Elizabeth Trowbridge of Elk Lake was 16th in qualifying for the girls’ 1600 where 12 make the final.

Blue Ridge’s Sean Stanley, Montrose’s Kurt Kimsey and Allison Lewis all placed 19th. Stanley went 40-2 1⁄2 in the boys’ triple jump, Kimsey threw 153-10 in the boys’ javelin and Lewis ran 1:00.29 in girls’ 400 qualifying.

Montrose’s Jeremy Dibble tied for 22nd in the pole vault by clearing 12-0.

Elk Lake’s Meagan Bush was 27th in the shot put at 34-0.

WEEK IN REVIEW

OLD FORGE – Susquehanna battled four-time defending District 2 Class A softball champion Old Forge before falling, 6-3.

The Lady Sabers forced a 3-3 tie after 3 1⁄2 innings by rallying from three runs down.

Old Forge ran past Susquehanna by scoring two runs on wild pitches, two on passed balls and another when an outfield throw to the plate was misplayed.

Taylor Nemetz threw a four-hitter for Old Forge. After the Lady Devils scored three times in the bottom of the fourth, she allowed just one baserunner over the final three innings and that came as the result of an error.

Lauren Carey had two hits for Old Forge, including one to start the fourth inning.

Old Forge scored three times in the second inning.

The Lady Sabers rallied to score once in the top of the third and twice in the fourth. Mikayla Hargett had an RBI double for the game's only extra-base hit in the fourth inning.

Brooke Sampson had two hits for Susquehanna while Brittany Glover had one.

Micaela Rhone threw a four-hitter with five walks and three strikeouts.

Blue Ridge advanced to the semifinals by handling Forest City, 11-1, in six innings.

Jackie Furch threw a one-hitter with 11 strikeouts for Blue Ridge.

Mountain View was eliminated in the quarterfinals by a 10-4 loss to MMI Prep.

Kristin Purcell had four hits and drove in four runs for MMI, which scored six times in the top of the third for a 7-2 lead.

Montrose defeated Elk Lake, 5-4, in the District 2 Class AA quarterfinals before falling to Nanticoke, 2-0, in the semifinals.

Montrose and Nanticoke were scoreless into the sixth inning when Kayley Schinski and Katie Wolfe drove in runs with singles.

Wolfe went 2-for-3 while Hannah Rubasky threw a three-hitter for Nanticoke.

Montrose rallied past Elk Lake with three runs in the bottom of the seventh.

Katie Groover finished with four hits and drove in three runs.

Elk Lake had defeated Meyers, 12-5, in the first round while Montrose had a bye.

The Lady Warriors scored in five of their six at-bats, including five runs in the bottom of the fourth for an 8-2 lead.

Casey Tyler, who drove in four runs, and Sara Kwiatkowski each went 3-for-4.

Debbie Harvey struck out eight in the win.

In high school baseball, Montrose advanced to the District 2 Class AA semifinals with an 11-1 win over winless GAR and a 3-2 victory over Mountain View.

Holy Cross edged Elk Lake, 4-3, in the first round.

Old Forge shut out Blue Ridge, 15-0, in three innings in the Class A semifinals.

In professional baseball, Rich Thompson is 1-for-11 (.091) through four games as an outfielder for the Tampa Bay Rays.

Thompson started in left field May 23 against Toronto and went 0-for-4 with a run scored in a 5-4, 11-inning victory.

The Montrose graduate scored the game-winning run after leading off the 11th by getting hit by a pitch. He raced around from first on a one-out double by Eric Thames.

COLLEGE CORNER

Lackawanna College’s Dustin Barton broke 80 in three of four rounds at the National Junior College Athletic Association Division II championships.

Barton, a Susquehanna graduate, shot 79-77-92-79 for a 39-over-par, 327. He was 105th out of 128 players in the field.

The Falcons shot 1304 to finish 18th out of 19 teams at the par-72, 7,112-yard Swan Lake Resort in Plymouth, Ind.

THE WEEK AHEAD

The District 2 Class AA baseball championship is scheduled for Thursday.

Montrose was scheduled to play Holy Cross Tuesday in one semifinal while Hanover Area and Holy Redeemer played in the other. The winners will play in Thursday’s final.

The District 2 Class A softball championship is also Thursday. It will feature the winners of Tuesday’s two scheduled semifinals, Blue Ridge against MMI Prep and Old Forge against Northwest.

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.

KAHNE CHARGES TO COKE 600 WIN

CONCORD, N.C. - Kasey Kahne powered his way to the finish line in Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600, as he crossed the stripe 4.3 seconds ahead of runner-up, Denny Hamlin.

It was Kahne’s first win since the 2011 Phoenix race, and his third Coca-Cola 600 victory.

“The car felt really good all night,” said Kahne. “We ran the entire 600 miles without any problems.

“Things didn’t start off well for us this season, but this is great. We’ve got a great team, and a lot of great teammates.”

With about 20-laps to go in the 400-lap race, Denny Hamlin mounted a charge, and for a while it looked like he had a chance of catching Kahne, but he fell off the pace and had to settle for second.

“The car was good,” said Hamlin. “I used my tires up near the end trying to catch Kasey. He just had a little more than we did tonight.”

Kyle Busch rallied to finish third.

“We gave it our best shot,’ said Busch. “We worked on the car all night, and it was getting faster as the laps wound down, but we just couldn’t make it to the front.”

Greg Biffle led the most laps, but came in fourth.

“We were pretty dang good, until right near the end,” said Biffle. “As it cooled down and the speeds picked up we just couldn’t get the speed that Kasey had.”

Brad Keselowski, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards, and Matt Kenseth were the remaining top-10 drivers.

Jimmie Johnson’s team had a pit road miscue, when the gas can got stuck in his car during a green flag pit stop, and he was penalized with a stop and go penalty. He came in the pits third and left 12th. He finished 11th.

The race had only five cautions, and most of the pit stops were made under the green flag.

Kasey Kahne celebrates his third Coca-Cola 600 win

Top-12 leaders after 12 of 36: 1. Biffle-453, 2. Kenseth-443, 3. Hamlin-437, 4. Earnhardt-435, 5. Johnson-405, 6. Truex-404, 7. Harvick-398, 8. Kyle Busch-391, 9. Stewart-388, 10. Edwards-372, 11. Keselowski-368, 12. Bowyer-366.

KESELOWSKI OUTRUNS HAMLIN IN NATIONWIDE RACE

Brad Keselowski beat Denny Hamlin to the finish line by .8838 seconds, to win Saturday’s Nationwide race at Charlotte.

Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Elliott Sadler, Joey Logano, James Buescher, Justin Allgaier, Sam Hornish, and Joey Coulter rounded out the top-10.

Top-10 points leaders after 11 of 33: 1. Stenhouse-430, 2. Sadler-417, 3. A. Dillon-402, 4. Hornish-373, 5. Whitt-336, 6. Allgaier-336, 7. Annett-331, 8. Bliss-291, 9. Patrick-264, 10. Nemechek-262.

IS DANICA ABOUT DRIVING OR MARKETING

While Danica Patrick hasn’t set the racing world on fire with her driving, she has stormed the corporate walls with her marketing appeal.

She finished 30th in Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600, five laps down

When she switched to NASCAR full time this year from the Indy-cars, it seemed like a no-brainer. She was leaving a series with poor TV ratings and a schedule heavily weighted toward road courses.

There were a lot of diehard NASCAR fans that believed her move was more about money than racing, but some disagreed. One of them is Darrell Waltrip, former NASCAR Cup champion and Fox racing analyst.

“I don’t know what level she would be at, but I know she would have a ride (in NASCAR) whether she was male or female, because she has that kind of talent,” Waltrip said.

While she has driving talent, she’s also gotten opportunities. Some of those might have come because of her gender and sex appeal.

Despite mediocre results, she is on billboards, in newspapers, television ads, everywhere, making headlines and attracting attention for a host of high-paying sponsors.

TV ratings for NASCAR’s Nationwide Series are up, and many believe it is because of her presence. That, along with her wide marketing appeal, makes her move to NASCAR a success, despite her performance on the track.

For her Cup debut in the Daytona 500, Patrick generated $11.8 million in TV exposure for her sponsors, compared with $11.6 million for Matt Kenseth, the race winner. She wrecked and completed only 138 laps, while Kenseth ran 200 laps and won the race.

What that means is the Fox television cameras and media personnel focused on her, much more than they did on Kenseth.

At the end of the day, whether she’s leading, running in the middle, or finishes near the end, she is seen and heard.

Coca-Cola executives, who signed Patrick to a new sponsorship deal earlier this month, care very little about her initial results on the track. They care that she connects with males between the ages of 18 and 34, the key demographic of their Coke Zero marketing campaign.

For that, Patrick offers no apologies.

In a recent article in Sporting News, she said:

“I’m a girl, and to say that I can’t use being a girl doesn’t make any sense. In this world, there is so much competition out there and you have to use everything that you have to make sponsors happy, to attract them and to be unique and be different.”

So what about the racing aspect of NASCAR?

Is Danica about racing or marketing?

I don’t know. Maybe it’s both; a little racing and a lot of hype.

But you can’t deny that she has created a lot of buzz through the media.

2013 HALL OF FAMERS ANNOUNCED

The 2013 NASCAR Hall of Fame Class has been named. They include: Herb Thomas, Leonard Wood, Rusty Wallace, Cotton Owens, and Buck Baker.

The five-person class, will be officially inducted, February, 2013 at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, N.C.

Weekend Racing: All three of NASCAR’s major series’ will be at the 1-mile Dover International Speedway.

Fri., June 1, Camping World Trucks Lucas Oil 200, race 6 of 22; Starting time: 8 pm ET (Tape delay. The race actually starts at 5 pm, but it will not be shown on TV until 8 pm.); TV: SPEED.

Sat., June 2, Nationwide 5-Hour Energy 200, race 12 of 33; Starting time: 1:30 pm ET; TV: ESPN.

Sun., June 3, Sprint Cup Dover 400, race 13 of 36; Starting time: 12:30 pm ET; TV: FOX.

Racing Trivia Question: Where will the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Banquet be held this year?

Last Week's Question: Who was the 2011 winner of the Coca-Cola 600? Answer. It was Kevin Harvick.

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