The lineup looked different but Elk Lake still appeared to have the best small school girls’ cross country team in Pennsylvania during Saturday’s PIAA Foundation Invitational at the Hershey Parkview Course.

Elk Lake, the defending Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Class A state champion, led a strong District 2 performance by winning the Class A girls’ team title in the event which annually pulls in many of Pennsylvania's top teams in an unofficial preview of the state championships.

The Montrose girls finished third and the Elk Lake boys were fourth in Class A in the team standings.

Kenzie Jones led Elk Lake to the team title and had the best individual performance on a day that saw eight of the top 20 and 13 of the top 33 runners in the 129-runner Class A girls’ field come from Susquehanna County.

District 2 produced two individual champions among the six races with Tessa Barrett of Abington Heights shattering the course record by 26 seconds while winning the Class AAA girls’ title and Domenic Hockenbury of Lake-Lehman winning the Class AA boys’ title.

Jones was sixth in Class A girls, covering the 3.1-mile course in 20:43.

Three freshmen finished among the five runners forming Elk Lake’s winning team score. Justine Johns was eighth, Julie VanEtten 19th and Lexus Hemenway 20th. Katie Bennett added a 10th-place finish.

Elk Lake led three District 2 teams in the top three spots, edging Holy Cross, 58-60, for the team title. Montrose was third with 88.

Samantha Bennici placed ninth to lead Montrose while Allison Lewis was 14th and Emma Washo 18th. Paige Poloway (22nd) and Angela Russell (30th) completed the team score.

Susquehanna finished 15th out of 19 teams. The Lady Sabers were led by Mikayla Hargett in 32nd and Ivy Christenson in 33rd.

The Elk Lake boys were fourth and Susquehanna was 18th out of 20 teams.

Eddie Cumens was 18th, Hunter Bedell 32nd and Dalton Sherman 35th for the Warriors, who also had two freshmen figure into the scoring with Daniel Bell 42nd and Seth Owens 46th.

Brandon Soden was 32nd to lead Susquehanna.

Owen Brewer of Montrose was 33rd out of 182 runners in the Class AA boys’ race.

Earlier in the week, Elk Lake swept a home cluster meet against Scranton, Mid Valley and West Scranton.

The wins, in both boys’ and girls’ competition, left both Elk Lake teams alone in first place of the Lackawanna League with 9-0 records. Going into this week, both Scranton Prep teams and the Holy Cross girls had the only other unbeaten records in the league.

WEEK IN REVIEW

Montrose’s Austin Smith shot 78 Wednesday at Elmhurst Country Club to finish fourth in the Lackawanna League’s qualifier for the District 2 Class AA Championships.

The top 26 players from the league’s 13 Class AA teams advanced to the October 7 district tournament at Elmhurst.

Smith was one of four Montrose players to advance after finishing four shots behind medalist John Barone from Dunmore. Forest City had three players advance and Mountain View had two.

Tyler Salak from Mountain View was the other Susquehanna County player to break 80 in the qualifier with a round of 79. He finished ninth a year ago in the district tournament when the top six advanced into state play.

Forest City’s Dylan O’Dell shot 82.

Kory Morrison (83), Codi Benedict (84) and Cameron Dean (90) were the other Meteors to advance.

Chad Wescott from Mountain View shot an 83.

Forest City’s Adam Kowalewski and Ryan Long each shot 90.

In high school football, Susquehanna and Montrose each suffered losses Friday night.

Susquehanna fell at Riverside, 13-9, while Montrose was shut out at home by Honesdale, 21-0.

Both Riverside and Honesdale posted their first wins of the season.

Riverside and Susquehanna connected in a defensive battle.

Susquehanna’s defense held Riverside without a first down until late in the third quarter, allowing only 11 yards total offense for the first 34 minutes.

Riverside scored one of its touchdowns on defense and stopped the Sabers in Vikings territory six times in the first three quarters.

The Sabers were inside the 30 five times but only scored with 1:58 left and, when an on-side kick was unsuccessful, never got the ball back with a chance to complete the rally.

Susquehanna dropped to 1-3 with all three losses coming by five points or less.

The Sabers finished with statistical advantages of 9-7 in first downs, 157-60 in rushing yards and 197-155 in total offense.

Quarterback Austin White led the Sabers with 72 yards rushing on 14 carries, including a 2-yard touchdown run with 1:56 left.

White also hit Craig Monks with a 19-yard pass and had a 15-yard run in the late, six-play, 60-yard scoring drive.

Susquehanna was stopped on downs at the Riverside 28 and missed a 38-yard field goal attempt on its first two possessions.

John Plisko grabbed a Sabers option pitch out of the air and returned the fumble 47 yards for the game’s first score with 9:29 left in the first half.

The Sabers closed within, 7-3, with 6:09 left in the half but missed a prime opportunity to pick up more points.

Lewis Esposito forced a fumble that Lyle Lawson recovered at the Riverside 6.

Susquehanna reached the 2 on two runs, then settled for a 20-yard Steve Jesse field goal after an incomplete pass on third down.

Riverside put together two drives in the fourth quarter.

The Vikings reached the Sabers 8 before Evan Aldrich stopped a fourth-down play for a loss with help from Craig Stanley.

John Plisko found Nico Munley with a 21-yard touchdown pass on fourth-and-20 to push the lead to 13-3.

Christian Miller led the Sabers defense with seven tackles and an assist. He had two sacks for 24 yards in losses, plus another tackle for a loss.

Esposito added three tackles and five assists while breaking up a pass and forcing the fumble. White had five tackles, including one for a six-yard loss, and an assist. Lawson added two tackles, including one for a loss, and three assists to his fumble recovery.

Honesdale scored a touchdown in each of the first three quarters against Montrose.

The Meteors remained scoreless for the season, but produced their most competitive game of the season.

In boys’ soccer, Wayde Loomis scored a school-record seven goals, including the 50th of his career, to lead Forest City over Old Forge, 10-3, Thursday.

Defending state champion Mountain View remained alone in first place of Lackawanna League Division 3 with a 4-0 record while Elk Lake was second at 3-0-1. They were scheduled to meet Monday.

In girls’ soccer, Mountain View has the only unbeaten record in Lackawanna Division 4 at 3-0.

COLLEGE CORNER

Recent Montrose graduate Katie Clark was part of the four-person team score in two of her first three rounds with the Wes Chester University golf team before leading the team in the fourth.

The NCAA Division II school opened its fall season with back-to-back, two-day events in Erie.

Clark made her college debut Sept. 13 with a 91 that counted in the opening day scoring at the Evann Parker Memorial Tournament, hosted by Mercyhurst University. She shot 96 in the second round to help West Chester place eight of 16 teams.

West Chester moved on to the Michael Corbett Classic, hosted by Gannon University, and Clark was part of an historic finish Sept. 15, the first of two days at that event.

Clark shot 88 to tie for the third-best score on the team when West Chester placed five players under 90 for the first time in school history. She followed that up by shooting a team-best score of 80 to help West Chester place ninth out of 16 teams.

THE WEEK AHEAD

Montrose (0-4) is at Western Wayne (1-3) Friday night and Susquehanna (1-3) is home Saturday against Lakeland (3-1) in games that pit Lackawanna Football Conference Division 3 teams against LFC Division 2 opponents.

Our football predictions were 7-4 (63.6 percent) last week to bring our season record to 46-15 (75.4).

This week’s predictions, with home teams in CAPS: WESTERN WAYNE 38, Montrose 14; Lakeland 26, SUSQUEHANNA 20; DUNMORE 66, Holy Cross 0; LACKAWANNA TRAIL 35, Mid Valley 8; OLD FORGE 51, Riverside 0; CARBONDALE 13, Honesdale 0; SCRANTON 25, Valley View 16; Scranton Prep 37, NANTICOKE 0; WEST SCRANTON 24, Delaware Valley 13; ABINGTON HEIGHTS 22, Wallenpaupack 14.

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.

KENSETH AND “ROWDY” FINISH 1-2

Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch finished 1-2 at New Hampshire. Furnished by NASCAR

LOUDON, N.H.—For the second consecutive week, Matt Kenseth and his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Kyle Busch finished first and second in Sunday’s Sprint Cup race.

It was Kenseth’s seventh win of the season, and his 500th Cup race.

“This gives us a great start in the Chase,” said Kenseth. “They gave me such a good car to drive today, it seemed more like a Sunday drive than a race. All I had to do was keep out of trouble.”

Kenseth took the lead on a restart during lap 243 of the 300-lap race, and led the remaining 57-laps. For most of the laps, Kenseth and Busch were way ahead of the rest of the field.

“I tried everything, but the 20-car had a little more power.” said Busch. “Our team ran as hard as we could. I’m kind of glad we didn’t get to him, because I don’t know what would have happened.”

Greg Biffle, Jimmie Johnson, Jamie McMurray, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Brian Vickers, Jeff Burton, Carl Edwards, and Martin Truex Jr. were the remaining top-10 finishers.

Truex led about one half of the early laps, but faded near the end.

“We had a good car, but that last set of tires did us in. We couldn’t run up front on them,” he said.

Kurt Busch’s team saw their string of good finishes come to an end, as he wound up 12th, and was not able to lead any laps.

A caution with about 100 laps left, for debris on the track, was costly for Jeff Gordon. He overshot his pit box, and had to back up in the process of a four-tire change. He dropped from second to 22nd on the restart. He finished 15th.

Polesitter, Ryan Newman came in 16th.

Top-13 Chase leaders after 2 of 10: 1. Kenseth-2111, 2. Kyle Busch-2097, 3. Johnson-2093, 4. Edwards-2075, 5. Biffle-2073, 6. Harvick-2072, 7. Kurt Busch-2071, 8. Gordon-2069, 9. Newman-2064, 10. Bowyer-2063, 11. Earnhardt-2049, 12. Logano-2042, 13. Kahne-2040.

YOUNG RYAN BLANEY TAKES NATIONWIDE RACE

Young Ryan Blaney, making only his 15th start, won Saturday night’s Kentucky Nationwide race.

The win didn't come easy for Blaney, a 19 year-old development driver for Penske Racing. He was nearly wrecked by teammate and points leader Sam Hornish Jr., on a restart with 15 Laps to go.

As Hornish attempted to take the lead from Blaney, Hornish's Ford broke loose on the bottom of the track and immediately slid up the race track, nearly colliding with Blaney. While Hornish faded, Blaney kept his foot on the gas and kept Austin Dillon in his rearview mirror, through one more caution.

“We had a great car all night," said a jubilant Blaney. "We kept working on it throughout the race, just little tweaks here and there. We were really strong to start out the race and just got better and better as the runs went on. It was really tough the last few restarts to really know what was going to happen. The way the restart rule is now, you never know how big of a push someone can get.”

Austin Dillon finished second, followed by Matt Crafton, Sam Hornish, Alex Bowman, Drew Herring, Brian Vickers, Jeb Burton, Cole Whitt, and Michael Annett.

Top-10 leaders after 27 of 33 races: 1. Hornish-962, 2. A. Dillon-947, 3. Smith-917, 4. Sadler-908, 5. Vickers-902, 6. Allgaier-887, 7. Scott-883, 8. Bayne-868, 9. Larson-822, 10. Kligerman-783.

Note: Nationwide Insurance, sponsor of the Nationwide Series will not return after the 2014 season.

WALTRIP RACING LOSES SPONSORSHIP

NAPA Auto Parts, sponsor of the Michael Waltrip Racing’s No. 56 Toyota, driven by Martin Truex is dropping their estimated $15-million sponsorship at the end of this season.

“After thorough consideration, NAPA has made the difficult decision to end its sponsorship arrangement with Michael Waltrip Racing effective December 31, 2013,” said Gaylord Spencer, NAPA's Vice President. “NAPA believes in fair play and does not condone actions such as those that led to the penalties assessed by NASCAR. We remain supportive of the millions of NASCAR fans and will evaluate our future position in motorsports.

“NASCAR determined that MWR attempted to manipulate race results at Richmond, Virginia, on September 7, 2013. NASCAR assessed a large fine, deducted 50 points from each of the three MWR drivers in the race and suspended or banned other members of the MWR team.

“NAPA believes in fair play and we are very disappointed in the actions that led to the NASCAR penalties. We have made NAPA’s decision known to MWR and posted a statement on our Facebook page. There will be significant media coverage and discussion among racing fans and we expect that our decision to terminate our sponsorship will generate additional attention. The decision was difficult, but we believe it is the right thing to do.”

Despite the NASCAR penalties, and loss of sponsorship, Michael Waltrip still denies the cheating charge.

“To the fans and those who made their voice heard through social media, as the owner, I am responsible for all actions of MWR,” said Waltrip. “I sincerely apologize for the role our team played and for the lines NASCAR has ruled were crossed by our actions at Richmond.”

Despite what many racing fans considered ‘bad publicity’, over the Michael Waltrip racing scandal, Bruton Smith, owner of Speedway Motorsports Inc., said die-hard fans simply don't care about the accusations, and the attention from the fallout gave NASCAR the spotlight to kick off the Chase at just the right time in a crowded sports landscape.

“I think it gives the sport a tremendous amount of publicity,” Smith said. “We might win more than we lose. We've had huge publicity all week, or at least since Richmond.”

He also said the infractions are tame compared to some of the scandals that rock other sports leagues, such as the NFL and former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez. Hernandez is charged with murder in the shooting death of 27-year-old Odin Lloyd

“If you want to be detrimental to a sport, have your athletes going to prison,” Smith said. “One of them for murder. He's still in jail for murder. That is terrible. I believe we have the cleanest sport there is. I think we are very lucky. I think NASCAR is doing a great job.”

Weekend Racing: The Trucks will be out west at the 1.5-mile Las Vegas track, while the Cup and Nationwide teams will be battling it out on Dover’s Monster Mile.

Sat., Sept. 28, Nationwide series, race 28 of 33; Starting time: 3:30 pm ET; TV: ESPN2.

Sat., Sept. 28, Truck series, race 17 of 22; Starting time: 8:30 pm ET; TV: FoxSports1.

Sat., Sept. 29, Sprint Cup series, race 29 of 36; Starting time: 2 pm ET; TV: ESPN.

Racing Trivia Question: Which team and series will Juan Montoya be with in 2014?

Last Week’s Question: Who was the first African-American to drive in NASCAR? Answer. Charlie Scott of Atlanta drove a Chrysler for Carl Kiekhaefer in the 1956 Daytona Beach race to become the first African-American driver. He finished 19th out of 76 drivers.

You may e-mail the Racing Reporter at: hodges@race500.com.