Montrose clinched at least a tie for the Lackawanna Track Conference Division 4 boys’ and girls’ track titles with a sweep of Lackawanna Trail Wednesday.

Both Montrose teams went into a meet with Blue Ridge, scheduled for Monday, with a chance to complete the regular season unbeaten in the division and take the titles outright. Montrose won both championships last year.

Brenton Warner and Brianna Thompson helped Montrose sweep all the throwing events for the day.

Warner won the shot put, discus and javelin while Mike Stewart was posting three individual wins and a relay victory to lead the Meteors over the Lions, 99-41.

Stewart won the 100- and 200-meter dashes the long jump as well as running on the winning 400-meter relay team.

Thompson won the shot put, discus and javelin while Emma Washo was winning two individual events and a relay when the Lady Meteors routed the Lady Lions, 138-1.

Every other boys’ team in the division already had at least one loss prior to the start of the week.

The Montrose girls moved into position to clinch at least a tie for the title when Elk Lake handed Blue Ridge its first loss a day earlier.

Washo won the 1600- and 3200-meter runs and ran a leg on the 3200-meter relay.

Michaela Pike won both the triple jump and high jump.

WEEK IN REVIEW

Fred Bostrom, a 76-year-old from Brackney, was part of the second-largest group of runners to ever finish the Boston Marathon when he completed the 26.2-mile course in 5:41:31 April 21.

Bostrom finished 30,200th out of 32,456 runners who started the race and 31,931 who finished. He was 30th among the 45 men ages 75-79 who finished the course.

In professional hockey, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins split a pair of overtime games to begin their first-round Calder Cup Playoff series.

The Penguins won, 3-2, Friday night and the Senators won, 4-3, Saturday in games played at the Broome County Arena in Binghamton.

Anton Zlobin’s unassisted goal 8:40 into overtime lifted Wilkes-Barre to the win Friday.

The Penguins never led in regulation. Andrew Ebbett’s short-handed goal with 2:03 left in the second period erased the second deficit and created the 2-2 tie.

Binghamton tied the series Saturday when Stephane DaCosta’s second goal of the game decided it at 11:07 of overtime.

This time, the Senators never led until pulling out their win in the extra session.

Mark Stone, who assisted on the other three goals, scored 23 seconds into the third period to force the 3-3 tie.

Chuck Kobasew and Tom Kostopoulos, who had assists in the Game One win, scored for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in Game Two.

In professional baseball, Chase Whitley and Alfredo Aceves combined on a six-hitter with 11 strikeouts April 22 when the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders shut out the Buffalo Bisons, 5-0, to lift manager Dave Miley to a record victory.

The win was the 575th for Miley as manager of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees and RailRiders. Marc Bombard had 574 wins as the manager of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons for what had been the record for the International League franchise.

Whitley struck out seven in five innings. Aceves struck out nine in four innings for the save.

Antoan Richardson stole three bases in the win.

In boys’ volleyball, Mountain View handed visiting Western Wayne its first loss of the Lackawanna League season April 22 with a 25-21, 18-25, 25-16, 26-24 victory.

The Eagles moved into a share of first place, but were knocked back out of it two days later at Abington Heights when they lost, 27-25, 21-25, 25-21, 25-14.

In high school softball, Montrose and Mountain View finished the week 5-1 and tied for the Lackawanna League Division 4 lead. Susquehanna is in third place at 5-3.

In high school baseball, Montrose and Mountain View are both 5-1, one-half game behind unbeaten Division 4 leader Lackawanna Trail.

COLLEGE CORNER

Meghan Ragard, a senior from Blue Ridge, was part of East Stroudsburg University’s 4x400-meter relay team that set a meet record April 19 when the Warriors hosted the ninth annual All-American Meet.

Ragard anchored the relay that also included Colleen Murphy, Imani Rosario and Danielle Smith. They produced a time of 3:56.59. She was also East Stroudsburg’s top finisher in the 400-meter dash, finishing sixth in 1:01.00.

The East Stroudsburg 4x800 relay team competed at the prestigious Penn Relays in Philadelphia Saturday. Ragard ran the anchor leg in 2:23.98, the second-best time as the team finished in 9:33.61 to place last out of 29 teams, 27 of which are NCAA Division I schools. East Stroudsburg competes in Division II.

After also competing in the triple jump as a freshman and sophomore, Ragard has concentrated on middle distance events the past two indoor and outdoor seasons.

During the indoor season, Ragard was on the 4x800 relay team that won the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Championships title with a school-record time of 9:25.29.

THE WEEK AHEAD

Games Three and Four of the first-round Calder Cup Playoff series will be Wednesday and Friday nights at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre.

If necessary, the fifth game will be Monday, May 5 at the Broome County Arena in Binghamton. All games are scheduled for 7:05 starts.

In boys’ tennis, the District 2 team championships open Friday with quarterfinal matches at the home of the higher seeds.

The semifinals and finals are scheduled for Tuesday, May 6 at Kirby Park.

Montrose is 3-7 making the Meteors unlikely to qualify for the six-team Class AA field.

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.

GREAT RACE FINISH AT RICHMOND

Richmond winner Joey Logano and car owner Roger Penske
Furnished by NASCAR.

RICHMOND, Vir.—The finish and aftermath of Saturday night’s Sprint Cup race had all the elements of a great race.

First, the ending of the race, which was won by Joey Logano had an almost unbelievable finish. After the race ended, and the cars were on pit road, a real old fashioned, fist-swinging fight broke out between Marcos Ambrose and Casey Mears.

Logano was lined up in the fourth position on the race’s last restart on lap 391 of the 400-lap race. Ahead of him were Matt Kenseth, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, and Logano.

Earnhardt quickly lost position, leaving Kenseth and Gordon to battle for the lead.

With about five laps remaining, Brad Keselowski showed up and began pushing Kenseth and Gordon. On lap 394, Keselowski was even with Gordon and tried to pass Kenseth on the high side. Kenseth acted appropriately, drifting up the track, and closing Keselowski’s passing lane.

Gordon was running on the inside of Kenseth and Keselowski. All three cars were bunched up.

Neither driver backed off as each one appeared determined to out run the other. The three cars touched and bumped several times. At this point, Logano, who was running the low groove had the throttle to the floor, and passed all three of the leaders.

Gordon was able to move ahead of Kenseth and Keselowski, who had to back off the gas in order to keep from losing control of their cars.

Logano sensed victory and never let up. He crossed the finish line almost a second ahead of Gordon.

“Boy, that was a real race,” said Logano. “I think that was the best race I’ve ever run. I knew something was going to happen there at the end the way they were racing. I was afraid Brad or Matt was going to get together and come down on me.

“It’s unbelievable how the end of the race played out in our favor.”

Jeff Gordon led the most laps (6 times for 173 laps), but did not get off to a good restart.

“Those restarts were something,” he said. “We had a good car on the long runs of 40-laps or more. We just couldn’t take the win on a short run.”

While Kenseth and Keselowski were trying to wreck each other, Kyle Busch slipped into third.”

“Oh man, that last restart was something,” said Busch. “Everyone started shoving and trying to go to the bottom. I said O.K. and went high. It was a gamble, but it paid off.

Keselowski managed to hold on for fourth.

“I should have won the race,” he said. “He (Matt Kenseth) tried to run me off the track. He just went up so I couldn’t get by, and almost wrecked me.”

Kenseth, who came in fifth didn’t see it the same way as Keselowski.

“Well, we were racing for a win,” said Kenseth. “What did he expect me to do, just pull over and let him pass me? I was the leader of the race, and I could take whatever line I wanted to. That’s why this is called a racing game.”

A. J. Allmendinger was sixth, followed by Dale Earnhardt, Ryan Newman, Carl Edwards, and Martin Truex.

The race got off to a bad start for polesitter Kyle Larson. As Larson entered Turn 1, right after the start of the race, Clint Bowyer dove to the bottom of the track and sent Larson for a spin.

Larson went on to finish 16th while Bowyer had tire problems, then a fire, and wound up 43rd.

Marcos Ambrose and Casey Mears got into a heated argument after the race, with a couple punches being thrown.

Ambrose and Mears were seen talking and shouting. Mears shoved Ambrose, who then landed a punch to Mears head.

A Fox video showed that as the pair was leaving the area, a crew member wearing a uniform from Earnhardt Childress Racing Engines gave Ambrose a sucker-punch from behind.

Robin Pemberton, NASCAR vice president of competition, said the sanctioning body would review the incident during the week.

Top-16 Chase leaders after 9 of 36: 1. Gordon-341, 2. Kenseth-336, 3. Edwards-313, 4. Kyle Busch-310, 5. Earnhardt-309, 6. Logano-292, 7. Keselowski-287, 8. Johnson-282, 9. Newman-272, 10. Vickers-256, 11. Biffle-256, 12. A. Dillon-252, 13. Larson-251, 14. Hamlin-245, 15. Stewart-243, 16. Ambrose-242.

“HAPPY” HARVICK TAKES NATIONWIDE RACE

Kevin Harvick outlasted the rain, fog, and Chase Elliott to win Friday night’s Nationwide Series race at Richmond, for his 41st victory in 307 starts.

The start of the race was delayed by over three hours due to fog, and once the race began, it was apparent that the two top cars were those driven by Harvick and Elliott. While the rookie, Elliott tried hard, he was unable to stay with the much faster car driven by Harvick.

“We were a little off on one run, but I knew we had the car to beat,” said Harvick. “Chase is a good kid, and a lot of fun to drive against. He’s a good little driver and he’s going to win lots more races.”

Elliott was able to stay close to Harvick for most of the night, despite Harvick leading 202 laps of the 250-lap race.

“Honestly, I think he just out drove me a couple times,” said Elliott. “He got the jump on me on a restart and I let him get too far out in front of me.”

Kyle Busch, who normally runs well at Richmond did not lead any laps, but managed a third-place finish.

Kyle Larson was fourth, followed by Brian Scott, Elliott Sadler, Chris Buescher, Regan Smith, Ryan Blaney, and James Buescher.

Top-10 leaders after 8 of 33: 1. Elliott-313, 2. Smith-294, 3. Sadler-290, 4. T. Dillon-278, 5. Bayne-274, 6. Scott-265, 7. Gaughan-239, 8. Buescher-229, 9. Kwasnieski-212, 10. Reed-204.

NASCAR’s Camping World truck series does not race again until May 9.

Top-10 Camping World truck leaders after 2 of 22: 1. Sauter-82, 2. Peters-81, 3. Crafton-78, 4. R. Blaney-78, 5. Hornaday-76, 6. Kennedy-72, 7. Quiroga-72, 8. D. Wallace-61, 9. Jeb Burton-60, 10. Reddick-60.

Weekend Racing: The Cup and Nationwide teams will be at Talladega, the longest track on the circuit (2.66-miles) this weekend.

Sat., May 3, Nationwide Series race 9 of 33: Starting time: 2:30 pm ET; TV: ESPN.

Sun., May 4, Sprint Cup race 10 of 36; Starting time: 12:30 pm ET; TV: Fox.

Racing Trivia Question: How many Cup championships has Jimmie Johnson won?

Last Week’s Question: What is Robin Pemberton’s official NASCAR title? Answer. It is vice president of competition.

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