Elk Lake finished first and Montrose came in second Saturday in the Girls White Division of the PIAA Foundation Cross Country Meet in Hershey.

The PIAA Foundation meet draws top cross country teams from around the state to compete on the Parkview Cross Country Course, which is also the site of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Championships in November.

In addition to the 1-2 finish by Elk Lake, Susquehanna placed seventh out of 16 teams.

Luke Jones was third while helping Elk Lake take sixth in the Boys White Division.

The Warriors had two of the top four finishers in the Girls White, which was for Class A schools in the PIAA’s new three-classification system for cross country.

Sophomore Jenny VanEtten finished in 20:24, five seconds behind Wyalusing’s Erika Huffman to place second. Kenzie Jones was fourth in 20:47.

Montrose’s Samantha Bennici was seventh in 21:10.

Elk Lake ran away with the team title with a score of 47 points.

Montrose easily beat out Delone Catholic for second, 107-130. Susquehanna edged Lackawanna League rival Mid Valley, 220-231, for seventh place.

Elizabeth Trowbridge was 12th, Lainey Bedell 14th, Kirsten Hollister 22nd, Kellie Grosvenor 37th and Casey Salsman 39th for Elk Lake.

Allison Lewis was 19th, Courtney Harding 29th, Emma Washo 30th and Angela Russell 36th to complete the Montrose team scoring.

Ivy Christenson was 20th, Mikayla Hargett 25th and Alyssa Sweeney 34th to lead Susquehanna.

Northeast Bradford won the Boys White title with 73 points.

Elk Lake had 166 points to place sixth out of 19 teams. Blue Ridge was 12th with 300 and Susquehanna was 18th with 456.

Sam Williams and Curt Jewett finished 1-2 for Northeast Bradford, followed by Elk Lake’s Luke Jones in 16:51.

Blue Ridge’s Jake Hinkley was 11th and Susquehanna’s Brandon Soden was 24th.

Regan Rome finished first in Girls Blue (Class AA) to lead Dallas to the team title.

The Holy Redeemer girls and Scranton Prep boys gave District 2 two more second-place team finishes in the Blue Divisions.

WEEK IN REVIEW

ELMHURST – Mountain View’s Chad Wescott was one of four Class AA players to break 80 Thursday when the Lackawanna League held its qualifier for the District 2 Boys’ Golf Tournament.

The top 26 Class AA players, along with the top 20 Class AAA players, advanced to the District 2 Tournament October 8 at Fox Hill Country Club.

Wescott shot a 7-over-par, 79 and was one of six Susquehanna County boys to advance.

Greg Reeves of Lakeland was medalist with a 74 and Dunmore advanced all six of its players.

Both Mountain View players who entered qualified along with two each from Montrose and Forest City.

Tyler Salak of Mountain View shot an 83.

Kory Morrison shot 80 and Lance Nealy 83 for Montrose.

Dylan O’Dell had an 86 and Adam Kowalewski a 91 for Forest City.

Abington Heights and North Pocono each advanced five Class AAA golfers and Cody Cox of Delaware Valley led qualifying with a 72.

This is the first year that the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association and District 2 are splitting golf championships into large school and small school classifications.

In girls’ golf, Montrose’s Katie Clark finished second in Class AA by shooting 85 Friday at Scranton Municipal to qualify for the District 2 Tournament.

Blue Ridge’s Olivia Rockwell shot 100 to finish tied for sixth and also advanced.

Selena Cerra of Holy Cross led Class AA qualifying with a 76 while Danielle Dalessandro of Scranton Prep led Class AAA with an 80.

In football, Nick Dranchak threw five first-half touchdown passes to lead Riverside to a 42-21 victory over Susquehanna Saturday.

Craig Stanley scored two touchdowns and Austin White threw two touchdown passes for the Sabers.

Dranchak ran 2 yards for a score and passed 42 yards to Jim Tucker to give Riverside a 12-0 lead.

Susquehanna came back to score on the final play of the first quarter when Dylan Krall pulled in a 31-yard touchdown pass from White. Trey Hillard kicked the first of his three extra points to cut the Riverside lead to 12-7.

Riverside broke the game open when Dranchak threw for four touchdown and a pair of two-point conversions in the second quarter. Dranchak went 8-for-10 for 230 yards in the quarter and finished 13-for-21 for 304 yards.

Tucker caught touchdown passes of 6 and 15 yards. Jaron Vishnesky, who also recovered a fumble and made an interception in the quarter, caught a 10-yard touchdown pass.

Dranchak threw 80 yards to Michael Loftus and found him again on the two-pointer with no time left on the clock going into the half to assure that the second half would be played under the Mercy Rule.

Stanley scored twice for the Sabers in the first 4:21 of the fourth quarter. He caught an 18-yard pass from White on third-and-15 then returned an interception 38 yards.

Cole Mallery led Susquehanna in rushing with 64 yards on nine carries.

White carried eight times for 35 yards and hit four of 10 passes for 62 yards with one interception.

Montrose remained winless Friday night when it fell at Honesdale, 41-0.

Kevin Miller passed for three touchdowns and Kyle Carney scored two as Honesdale handed Montrose its 32nd straight loss.

In soccer, both Mountain View teams are unbeaten to lead their Lackawanna League divisions. The Eagles are 4-0 in Division 3. The Lady Eagles are 3-0-1 and first in Division 4.

In girls’ volleyball, Susquehanna improved to 6-1.

In professional baseball, Montrose graduate Rich Thompson stole a base and scored a run for the Tampa Bay Rays Thursday against the Boston Red Sox.

Thompson went 0-for-3 while appearing in four games. He is hitting .091 in 20 games on the season.

COLLEGE CORNER

Ellen Squier of Cairn University, formerly known as Philadelphia Biblical, received the Colonial States Athletic Conference Women’s Cross Country Runner of the Week award for the week that ended Sept. 9.

The senior from Elk Lake was honored after winning the second annual Cairn Highlanders Invitational with a time of 19:36 for three miles.

Squier continued her strong start by finishing sixth out of 83 NCAA Division II and III runners at the University of Delaware Invitational.

Squier was a second-team CSAC all-star last season when she finished 13th at the conference championships. That effort came after leading the Philadelphia Biblical team in 10 of 12 races in the 2009 and 2010 seasons. In 2010, she became the first runner in school history to reach the NCAA Regionals.

THE WEEK AHEAD

Susquehanna and Montrose each face Lackawanna Football Conference Division 2 teams again Friday.

The Sabers (1-3) are at Lakeland (2-2). The Meteors (0-4) are home with Western Wayne (1-3).

Our predictions on last week’s high school football games were 9-2 (81.8 percent), lifting our season record to 43-15 (74.1 percent).

This week’s predictions, with home teams in CAPS: LAKELAND 23, Susquehanna 0; Western Wayne 39, MONTROSE 0; Old Forge 37, RIVERSIDE 20; Lackawanna Trail 50, MID VALLEY 26; Carbondale 25, HONESDALE 12; Delaware Valley 25, WEST SCRANTON 16; Scranton 46, VALLEY VIEW 23; Abington Heights 30, WALLENPAUPACK 16; SCRANTON PREP 55, North Pocono 6; Dunmore 42, HOLY CROSS 0.

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.

HAMLIN DOMINATES LOUDON CUP RACE

LOUDON, N.H.—Denny Hamlin made good on a promise to win Sunday’s Sylvania 300 Sprint Cup race at New Hampshire Speedway.

“I didn’t want to sound cocky, but I knew beforehand, we had the team and the ability to win this race,” said Hamlin.

Not only did he have the speediest car, but he led over two-thirds of the 300-lap race, and finished two and one-half seconds ahead of runner-up Jimmie Johnson.

The win was Hamlin’s fifth of the season and it moved him up to third in Chase points.

Denny Hamlin, winner at New Hampshire. (Furnished by NASCAR)

“Denny had a lot of speed,” said Johnson. “He could go where he wanted to, and when he wanted to. Our car was good, but we couldn’t quite catch or pass him.”

Polesitter Jeff Gordon finished.

“I really thought we had a chance, but we never got the car where I thought it could be,” said Gordon. “It would handle, but I just couldn’t get back to the front.”

Clint Bowyer came in fourth and remained sixth in points.

“This wasn’t quite what we wanted, but it was a good race, and it keeps us in the hunt,” said Bowyer.

Kasey Kahne, Brad Keselowski, Tony Stewart, Joey Logano, Brian Vickers, and Ryan Newman were the remaining top-10 finishers.

It looks like the Chase field has been narrowed to the top-7 drivers; Jimmie Johnson:-2096, 2. Brad Keselowski:-1, 3. Denny Hamlin:-7, 4. Tony Stewart:-10, 5. Kasey Kahne:-15, 6. Clint Bowyer:-15, 7. Dale Earnhardt:-26.

The eighth-place driver, Kevin Harvick is 31 points behind the leader. Greg Biffle is 33 back, followed by, Martin Truex:-34, Matt Kenseth:-35, and Jeff Gordon:-45.

DILLON TAKES NATIONWIDE RACE

Austin Dillon captured Saturday's Nationwide race at Sparta, KY.

Dillon, who started the race from the pole, regained the lead on Lap 151, slingshotting around Elliott Sadler to eventually build a three-second advantage before finishing with a 1.059-second margin of victory over runner-up Sam Hornish Jr.

Brendan Gaughan, Drew Herring, Elliott Sadler, Michael Annett, Justin Allgaier, Ryan Blaney, and Brad Sweet rounded out the top-10.

Top-10 leaders after 27 of 33: 1. Sadler-1014, 2. Stenhouse-1010, 3. A. Dillon-995, 4. Hornish-968, 5. Allgaier-911, 6. Annett-875, 7. Whitt-805, 8. Bliss-748, 9. Scott-666, 10. Nemechek-651.

BUESCHER CLAIMS KENTUCKY TRUCK WIN

SPARTA, Ky. -- James Buescher made it 2-for-2 for 2012 at Kentucky Speedway, stretching his fuel window for 53 laps to capture Friday night's Kentucky truck race.

The 22-year-old Buescher, who also won at the 1.5-mile track back on June 28, captured his fourth overall win of both the season and his career.

“I wouldn't say it was a dominating performance like the last time we were here (led 119 of 150 laps), but I think we led the most laps and dominated anyway,” said Buescher. “We've won four races with the same truck and now we're going to dust it off and take it to another mile-and-a-half (next week at Las Vegas).”

Top-10 finishers: 1. Buescher, 2. Parker Kligerman, 3. Ty Dillon, 4. Joey Coulter, 5. Brian Scott, 6. Johnny Sauter, 7. Justin Lofton, 8. Miguel Paludo, 9. Matt Crafton, 10. John Townley.

Top-10 leaders after 16 of 22: 1. T. Dillon-602, 2. Buescher-598, 3. Peters-576, 4. Kligerman-572, 5. Coulter-556, 6. Crafton-553, 7. Lofton-548, 8. Piquet-524, 9. Paludo-481, 10. Hornaday-477.

JR MOTORSPORTS FAMILY PARTY HAS ENDED

For the movers and shakers at JR Motorsports, the fun is over.

The curtain has fallen on Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s uncle and cousin.

They were given pink slips and are now out on the street.

Tony Eury Sr. was the competition director and Tony Eury Jr. served as crew chief for Danica Patrick.

“Unfortunately, Tony Jr. is no longer with the company,” Dale Jr. said. “I had hoped he would be here for a long time, but as we’ve discussed the direction of JR Motorsports moving forward, it was clear our differences in ideas were too vast to overcome.”

Earnhardt said a couple years ago that he loved it because JR Motorsports was a family workplace.

For most of the past four years, having the gang working together was fun for both the Eurys, Dale Jr., and his sister.

Eury Sr. was the crew chief for Earnhardt when he won the two Nationwide titles in 1998 and 1999 and then 15 Cup races with him during his initial years at DEI.

“They’re trying to fix the competition of the cars,” Eury Jr. told FoxSports.com. “They thought they could do better without me there. They hired Ryan (Pemberton) and Ryan’s their guy.”

Earnhardt learned the hard way that if things don’t work out, he’s got to fire family.

NASCAR racing is a performance-based business, but the performance—12th and 17th in the owner standings—wasn’t there.

The company had two rookie drivers this year, including a famous one with the name of Danica Patrick, who had limited stock-car experience. With their lack of progress this year, it should surprise no one that changes were made, only that they weren’t made earlier.

The bottom line is Patrick wasn’t getting any better. She isn’t the greatest racing talent, but she should have shown some progress.

When family is involved, it gets messy. Feelings get hurt.

Judging by e-mails I receive, fans think Dale Jr. has shown no loyalty for his family.

Was it a dysfunctional family-style arrangement that kept Dale, his sister, uncle and cousin together as a team?

It’s hard to understand what really goes on behind the outward appearance of racing teams. I prefer to believe that everyone involved faced the cold hard truth, and decided the cuts had to be made, if either of their teams was to get back in victory lane.

When millions are on the line, family goes to the rear of the bus.

Weekend Racing: The Camping World trucks are out west at the 1.5-mile Las Vegas Speedway, while the Nationwide and Cup teams are at the Dover Mile.

Sat., Sept. 29, Nationwide Dover 200, race 28 of 33; Starting time: 3 pm ET; TV: ESPN2.

Sat., Sept. 29, Camping World Trucks Las Vegas 350, race 17 of 22; Starting time: 8 pm ET; TV: SPEED.

Sun, Sept. 30, Sprint Cup AAA 400, race 29 of 36; Starting time: 1 pm; TV: ESPN.

Racing Trivia Question: How many racing flags are used by NASCAR officials?

Last Week's Question: What is the maximum number of trucks that start a Camping World Truck Series race? Answer. The starting field is limited to 36 trucks.

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