Jenny VanEtten and Elizabeth Trowbridge claimed individual medals while combining to lead Elk Lake to the state Class A girls’ team title Saturday at the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Championships on the Hershey Parkview Cross Country Course.

VanEtten finished fourth overall by completing the 3.1-mile course in 19:50, just eight seconds out of second place. Kennedy Weisner from Elk County Catholic ran away with the title in 18:29.

The top 25 individuals in each race received medals.

Trowbridge placed 13th in 20:19.

Luke Jones came within one second of giving Elk Lake two state titles at the same cross country meet for the second time in school history. He finished second in the Class A boys’ race, just one second behind District 2 rival Rico Galassi of Holy Cross while helping the Warriors to a second-place finish.

Elk Lake won the girls’ team title over West Middlesex, 66-100, finishing ahead of the second-place team at each of the top five spots that make up the team score.

Montrose made it two Susquehanna County teams in the top 10 by finishing eighth in the 18-team field with 185 points. Samantha Bennici led the Lady Meteors by finishing 39th in 21:07.

In all, seven county girls finished in the top 50 out of 207 who qualified for the state meet.

Elk Lake’s Kenzie Jones and Kirsten Hollister were back-to-back in 41st and 42nd places.

Susquehanna’s Ivy Christensen was 44th.

Lainey Bedell came in 46th to wrap up Elk Lake’s championship effort as the fifth runner in the team scoring. The five Lady Warriors were all among the top 21 from the 18 schools in the team competition.

Kellie Grosvenor (106th) and Cassy Salsman (142nd) also ran for Elk Lake.

Allison Lewis added a 57th-place finish for Montrose. Emma Washo was 73rd, Courtney Harding 103rd and Angela Russell 110th to complete the team score. Taylor Warner (146th) and Emily Blachek (194th) also ran for the Lady Meteors.

Susquehanna’s Mikayla Hargett was 78th.

Lauren Whitney of Blue Ridge placed 139th.

Jones, the three-time District 2 champion, finished the boys’ race in 16:00, one second behind Galassi.

The Warriors had a team score of 133, good for second place behind Northeast Bradford, which had the third- and fourth-place finishers and a score of 96.

Jones was best among any of the runners from team competitors.

Eddie Cumens finished 11th among the team runners and just missed an individual medal by placing 27th.

Dalton Sherman was 73rd, Hunter Bedell 102nd and Seth Carney 117th. Brandon Roman and Matt Horvath also ran for Elk Lake and finished 174th and 185th in the 227-runner field.

Blue Ridge’s Jake Hinkley was 40th while Susquehanna’s Brandon Soden was 83rd and Justin Acone was 139th.

District 2 had several other impressive performances, including Regan Rome finishing third to help Dallas take second in Class AA girls. The district had two of the top three teams and four of the top six individuals in the Class AA girls’ race.

Tunkhannock and Scranton Prep finished fourth and fifth in Class AA boys.

WEEK IN REVIEW

Mountain View swept the District 2 Class A boys’ and girls’ soccer championships for the second straight season.

The Eagles defeated Holy Cross, 6-1, in Saturday’s championship game after shutting out Lakeland, 4-0, in the semifinal.

Colby Thomas had a hat trick in the championship game, including two goals in the first half when Mountain View opened a 4-0 lead.

The Lady Eagles blanked Lakeland, 2-0, in Saturday’s final after beating Forest City, 4-2, in the semifinals.

In girls’ volleyball, Susquehanna advanced to the District 2 Class A championship match before falling to unbeaten Lackawanna League champion Dunmore.

Susquehanna downed Lackawanna Trail, 25-20, 30-32, 26-24, 15-19, in the semifinals.

Dunmore won the championship match, 25-15, 25-19, 25-11.

In high school football, Montrose closed out the regular season with a second win, surpassing its total from the previous three seasons combined.

The Meteors (2-8) knocked off visiting Northwest, an Eastern Conference Class A playoff qualifier, 19-7, Friday night.

Dale Harder returned a fumble 58 yards for a touchdown on the final play of the first half to put the Meteors ahead and John Lawson added his second touchdown run in the second half.

The Meteors won two of their final three games after suffering through a 35-game losing streak.

Lawson carried 29 times for 133 yards to help Montrose control the ball. The Meteors picked up 17 first downs to nine by the Rangers and used 56 offensive plays to gain 212 yards while holding Northwest to 40 plays and 148 yards.

Northwest took a 7-0 lead on a 4-yard Tony Politz run on the first play of the second quarter.

Lawson ran 1 yard and Will Ely added the extra point to tie the game with 4:57 left in the half.

Harder’s return made it 13-7 at halftime.

Lawson ran 7 yards for a score with 3:21 left in the third quarter.

Trevor Tompkins added 70 yards on 18 carries.

Susquehanna finished the season 3-7 when it dropped a Saturday home game, 49-6, to unbeaten Lackawanna Football Conference Division 3 champion Old Forge.

The Sabers were decimated by injuries late in the season and coach John Salinkas met with school administrators during the week to provide a report on the status of the roster in order to determine whether a team could be fielded for the game.

The game went on and, after giving up a touchdown on the first Old Forge offensive plays, Susquehanna came up with two straight defensive stops.

Old Forge then broke the game open with five touchdowns in less than eight minutes for a 42-0 lead in the second quarter.

Brenden Wahl threw touchdown passes to three different receivers and conference scoring leader Brian Tomasetti ran for three touchdowns for the Blue Devils.

Cole Mallery, who had an end zone interception when the score was still 6-0 in the first quarter, scored for the Sabers on a 7-yard run in the third quarter.

The Sabers were hurt by six first-half turnovers.

Mallery finished with 65 yards rushing on 15 carries and hit five of 16 passes for 73 yards in his first game as quarterback since Opening Day.

Zach Vaughn caught two passes for 50 yards and Chris Miller three for 23 yards.

Mallery also led the defense with five tackles, including one for a loss, the interception, a fumble recovery and a broken-up pass.

The final LFC Division 3 standings were: Old Forge 5-0 in the division and 10-0 overall; Lackawanna Trail 4-1 and 8-2; Carbondale 3-2 and 5-5; Susquehanna 2-3 and 3-7; Montrose 1-4 and 2-8; and Holy Cross 0-5 and 0-10.

Montrose finished 14th out of 15 teams in the District 2 Class AAA playoff points race. Susquehanna was ninth out of 11 teams in Class AA. The top four teams qualified for each bracket.

COLLEGE CORNER

Elk Lake graduate Ellen Squier earned second-team Colonial States Athletic Conference women’s cross country all-star honors with a 14th-place finish in the CSAC Championships at McDade Park in Scranton.

Squier helped Cairn University, formerly known as Philadelphia Biblical, to a third-place finish out of 11 teams, behind only host Marywood University and Gwynedd-Mercy College. She finished the six-kilometer race in 21:54.0.

Maria Trowbridge and Mike Bedell, two other former Elk Lake runners, competed in conference meets at Division I schools.

Trowbridge was 42nd for Southeast Missouri to finish in the top half of the field at the Ohio Valley Conference Chammpionships.

Bedell, a sophomore, finished 58th while running for Campbell University in the Big South Conference. The Division I school was third in it conference.

THE WEEK AHEAD

The state soccer quarterfinals are scheduled for Saturday.

Both Mountain View teams were scheduled to play first-round games Tuesday, needing a win to make it to Saturday’s action.

In high school football, eight LFC teams advanced into the district tournament system that sends teams on to state play and two others qualified for the Eastern Conference playoffs.

Scranton and Delaware Valley advanced to the District 2-4-11 Regional in Class AAAA; Abington Heights and Valley View made the District 2 Class AAA playoffs; Lakeland made districts in Class AA; and Old Forge, Dunmore, Lackawanna Trail and Riverside filled the district Class A tournament. Scranton Prep (AAA) and Carbondale (AA) received the consolation prize of a trip to the Eastern Conference playoffs.

Our predictions were 9-2 (81.8 percent) last week to complete the regular season at 91-28 (76.5 percent).

Predictions will continue until the last LFC team is eliminated from the playoffs.

As of presstime, Scranton’s first-round opponent still had not been determined.

This week’s predictions, with home teams in CAPS: SCRANTON 22, East Stroudsburg North 0 OR SCRANTON 38, East Stroudsburg South 9; DELAWARE VALLEY 38, Whitehall 15; ABINGTON HEIGHTS 29, Valley View 24; LAKELAND 23, GAR 20; DUNMORE 27, Lackawanna Trail 12; OLD FORGE 50, Riverside 19; Scranton Prep 37, CRESTWOOD 10; PALISADES 25, Carbondale 13.

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.

JOHNSON GETS SECOND WIN IN A ROW

FT. WORTH, Tex.—A determined Jimmie Johnson outraced Brad Keselowski on a green-white-checker finish to win Sunday’s Texas Sprint Cup race, and extend his lead by seven points over Keselowski, with two races to go.

“It was an awesome race,” said Johnson. “I think our cars were pretty equal, but our four tires were a little better than his two. We got a good restart, and were able to get by him.

“That’s what it takes to win championships.”

Johnson led the most laps, but faded to fourth after about lap 212 of the 334-lap race. As the laps wound down, Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski took turns leading. The race’s ninth and final caution set up the green-white-checkered finish.

Johnson was lined up on the outside of the leader, Keselowski. Both drivers got a good start. As the two leaders entered turn-2, Johnson pulled ahead of Keselowski, and it was ‘bye, bye,’ as he headed for victory lane.

Jimmie Johnson, Texas Cup winner (Furnished by NASCAR)

“Man, I thought I had it,” said Keselowski. “I really hate to lose one that way. We raced hard. I couldn’t do any better. But we’re gonna race hard all the way to Homestead.”

Keselowski took only two tires on his last pit stop, while Johnson and the other leaders took four. He was barely able to stay ahead of Kyle Busch, who finished a close third.

“We were really fast today when we got up front,” said Busch. “At the end I wanted to get the car out front in the clean air, but I couldn’t get there.”

Matt Kenseth, Tony Stewart, Clint Bowyer, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick, and Greg Biffle, were the remaining top-10 finishers.

With just two races left in this year’s NASCAR season, the championship is down to only two contenders, Jimmie Johnson and Brad Keselowski. All the others will have to wait until next year.

Top-12 Chase contenders after 34 of 36: 1. Johnson-2339, 2. Keselowski-2332, 3. Bowyer-2303, 4. Kahne-2281, 5. Kenseth-2267, 6. Gordon-2267, 7. Hamlin-2266, 8. Stewart-2259, 9. Truex-2259, 10. Biffle-2256, 11. Harvick-2238, 12. Earnhardt-2188.

HARVICK DOMINATES NATIONWIDE RACE

Kevin Harvick easily won Saturday’s Nationwide race at Texas, crossing the finish line 1.628 seconds ahead of 18-year-old Ryan Blaney, who made the most of a pit stop for tires on Lap 178 of the 200-lap race.

“I didn't want to make a big mistake and give up a big chunk of time there, because I knew somebody was going to be faster coming through the field,” Harvick said. “But it all timed itself out pretty good, and everything worked out.”

Polesitter Kyle Busch ran third, followed by Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who erased the six-point series lead Elliott Sadler held when the race began. Stenhouse, the defending Nationwide champion, is tied with Sadler with two races left in the season.

Denny Hamlin ran fifth, with Austin Dillon, Sam Hornish Jr., Justin Allgaier, Kevin Swindell and Joey Logano completing the top-10.

Top-10 leaders after 31 of 33: 1. Stenhouse-1170, 2. Sadler-1170, 3. A. Dillon-1149, 4. Hornish-1075, 5. Annett-1013, 6. Allgaier-1010, 7. Whitt-945, 8. Bliss-846, 9. Scott-780, 10. Patrick-772.

SAUTER GETS SECOND TEXAS TRUCK WIN

Johnny Sauter passed Parker Kligerman with 10 laps left, to win Friday night's Texas truck race and claim his second victory of the season. Both of Sauter's wins have come at the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway.

Nelson Piquet Jr. ran third, followed by Kyle Busch and Ty Dillon, who trimmed six points off series leader James Buescher's advantage with two races left in the season.

Matt Crafton, Joey Coulter, Todd Bodine, Aric Almirola, and Timothy Peters were the remaining top-10 finishers.

Top-10 leaders after 20 of 22: 1. Buescher-750, 2. T. Dillon-735, 3. Peters-725, 4. Kligerman-723, 5. Coulter-707, 6. Crafton-703, 7. Piquet-669, 8. Lofton-640, 9. Sauter-620, 10. Paludo-599.

TELEVISION STILL LOVES NASCAR

There is still a loving relationship between NASCAR and television executives.

At least that’s the case if you look at the new 13-race television package Fox signed with NASCAR. It’s worth $300 million per year. That’s up from the current contract of $200 million.

That averages out to $23 million per race. Track owners get 65 per cent, teams share 25 per cent, and NASCAR gets the remaining 10 per cent.

TV has changed the sport more than anything else.

When television came onboard, the money began to roll in.

Costs went up because everyone had to have the best money could buy. The faster the cars went, the more it cost to run them.

There are many “ifs and buts,” like the high cost of hotel rooms, poor economy, gasoline prices, and costs to get in the track, but it seems to me like the sport is being controlled more and more by television and a handful of car owners, who want to keep it that way.

Bruton Smith, the eccentric billionaire whose Speedway Motorsports Inc. owns eight NASCAR tracks, held court in the Texas Motor Speedway media center on Saturday and addressed a wide range of subjects.

“NASCAR needs to make the racing more exciting,” he said. “They have made some good moves in recent years - notably double-file restarts - but needs to implement additional improvements, like slow the cars down and thus make it easier for drivers to make bold moves.”

Races with too many long green-flag runs are not exciting, Smith said, and he suggested a smaller fuel tank would force drivers to make more pit stops. Fuel-mileage races, he said, are "boring, boring, boring." One solution could be a minimum number of cautions per race to serve as TV timeouts.

Drivers are "maybe not as eager" right now and NASCAR needs more racers who have a "mean streak."

Smith is still supportive of the Chase. He sounded concerned, though, that the playoff drivers get treated with kid gloves.

It’s NASCAR’s job to promote a sellable product the fans will like and want to see more of.

Apparently the television companies see something they like, but a lot of fans I hear from say the sport is stagnant, and something needs to be done.

Weekend Racing: All three of NASCAR’s major series are out west at the one-mile Phoenix (Arizona) Raceway.

Fri., Nov. 9, Truck Series Phoenix 150, race 21 of 22; Starting time: 8 pm ET; TV: SPEED.

Sat., Nov. 10, Nationwide Wypall 200, race 32 of 33; Starting time: 4 pm ET; TV: ESPN.

Sun., Nov. 11, Sprint Cup Phoenix 500, race 35 of 36; Starting time: 2 pm ET; TV: ESPN.

Racing Trivia Question: Which Cup driver won Rookie of The Year over Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2003?

Last Week's Question: What year was the Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship instituted? Answer. It was 2004.

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