The Montrose and Mountain View athletic programs were winners during the 2013-14 school year.

A comparison of the six Susquehanna County high schools by the Susquehanna County Transcript shows that both Montrose and Mountain View had winning years for the boys’ sports teams, their girls’ teams and their overall programs.

League standings in all Lackawanna League sports were used to compare the programs. Swimming and field hockey, where single teams compete in the Wyoming Valley Conference, were not included in the comparison.

Montrose had the most successful combined programs in both genders.

The Meteors went 55-42 for a .567 winning percentage in boys’ sports and 65-26 for a .714 percentage in girls’ sports. Overall, Montrose teams were 120-68 (.638) in Lackawanna League play for the school year.

Montrose won Lackawanna League divisional championships in boys’ and girls’ track, girls’ basketball and softball.

Mountain View and Elk Lake were the other winning boys’ programs in the county. Mountain View was the only other winning girls’ program.

Championships in baseball and soccer helped the Mountain View boys go 67-59-1 (.549). The Lady Eagles also won a soccer championship as part of their cumulative 26-20 (.565) record. Overall, Mountain View teams were 73-59-1 (.553).

The Elk Lake boys went 46-45-1 (.505) with the help of a championship basketball season.

Forest City, Blue Ridge and Susquehanna ranked 4-5-6 among boys’ programs. Susquehanna was third in girls’ winning percentage, followed in order by Elk Lake, Blue Ridge and Forest City. Elk Lake was third overall, followed by Forest City, Susquehanna and Blue Ridge.

Elk Lake girls’ teams went 32-44 (.421) to make the school 78-89-1 (.467) total.

Forest City had records of 30-40 (.429) for boys, 17-54 (.239) for girls and 47-94 (.333) overall.

Susquehanna’s records were 30-35 (.462) for girls, 14-55 (.203) for boys and 44-90 (.328) combined.

Blue Ridge went 25-66-1 (.277) in boys’ sports, 26-39 (.400) in girls’ sports and 51-105-1 (.328) overall.

WEEK IN REVIEW

The St. John’s IceCaps shut out the visiting Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, 5-0, June 3 to complete a four games-to-two victory in the American Hockey League’s Calder Cup Eastern Conference Finals.

St. John’s advanced to face the Texas Stars in the Calder Cup Finals.

Michael Hutchinson, who allowed just two goals in the four IceCaps wins in the series, made 32 saves in the shutout.

Former Penguin Jason Jaffray and defenseman Zach Redmond each had a goal and an assist.

St. John’s killed off five penalties and completed the series without allowing a goal in 32 power-play chances for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

In professional baseball, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders second baseman Jose Pirela was named International League Batter of the Week for the time period May 26-June 1.

Pirela led all Triple-A players for the week with 13 hits while batting .406. He had five hits in the final game of the week to tie a franchise record.

The 24-year-old from Venezuela ranks among the league leaders in runs scored and hits.

In high school sports, the last of the Lackawanna League teams had their seasons come to an end when Abington Heights (Class AAA) and Lakeland (AA) lost in baseball while Holy Cross (AA) and Old Forge (A) fell in softball June 2 when the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association state tournaments opened.

Holy Cross and Old Forge each lost in extra-inning softball games while Abington Heights fell in a one-run baseball game.

THE WEEK AHEAD

Seasons are coming to an end.

The American Hockey League is down to its Calder Cup Finals.

High school sports in Pennsylvania will conclude for 2013-14 with the baseball and softball championship games Friday at State College.

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.

JUNIOR GETS SECOND CUP WIN

Dale Earnhardt Jr. gets second Cup win of season at Pocono. Furnished by NASCAR

POCONO, Penn.—Luck is two-sided.

A piece of trash that became lodged on the grill of Brad Keselowski’s race car late in Sunday’s Pocono 400 brought him misfortune.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was in a position to capitalize on Keselowski’s miscue.

“He (Keselowski) didn’t want to let me by, but there at the end, I knew I had to go,” said Earnhardt. “My team did a heck of a job today. I had a winning car. If we hadn’t won the race today, I would have let them down.”

Keselowski appeared to have the fastest car. He led 95 laps of the 180-lap race, but a large piece of plastic became lodged on the front of his grill blocking the air flow to his engine. This caused the engine water temperature to rise sharply.

“Well, I knew I had to try something, because if I didn’t we weren’t going to make it the rest of the way,” said Keselowski.

With five laps remaining Keselowski tried to duck behind Danica Patrick’s lapped car, hoping the piece of debris might become dislodged.

“We were real hot,” continued Keselowski. “We were real fast. I just got a big piece of debris on the grille and had to do something or it would have blown up. I tried to make a move to get behind the 10 (Patrick) and use the air to pull the debris off and when she went into the corner she got loose and I just chased her up the track and lost too much momentum.

“I should have just passed her but I had to do some kind of move. The car wasn’t going to make it; it was already starting to blow up. I guess I shouldn’t have tried it.”

Kurt Busch was third.

“We might not have had the fastest car today, but we are an improved team,” said Busch. “Everyone is working real hard. We’ve taken a turn for the better. I think today’s results show that.”

Polesitter Denny Hamlin was fourth, while rookie Kyle Larson finished fifth.

Jimmie Johnson, who had a mental letdown during a two-tire pit stop on Lap 74, was sixth. As soon as his team had put on two fresh tires, Johnson shot out of his pit stall right into the side of Marcos Ambrose’s No. 9 car.

The force of the collision knocked Johnson into Ambrose’s pit area. Johnson then had to back up and return to his pit area; where his crew inspected for damage, before sending him back out.

When he returned to the track, he was in the 32nd spot.

Ryan Newman, Jeff Gordon, Martin Truex, and Jamie McMurray were the remaining top-10 finishers.

In another racing incident during lap 160, Kasey Kahne made contact with Kyle Busch coming out of turn-3 and hit the wall two different times. Carl Edwards was behind Kahne and had no place to go.

“There was a bunch of oil on the track,” said Edwards, who finished 41st. “Kasey really smacked the wall. I’ve never seen anyone hit it as hard as he did. I was just in the wrong place when it all started.”

Top-10 Chase leaders after 14 of 36: 1. Gordon-498, 2. Kenseth-482, 3. Earnhardt-477, 4. Johnson-475, 5. Keselowski-448, 6. Kyle Busch-443, 7. Edwards-441, 8. Hamlin-420, 9. Logano-418, 10. Larson-417.

CRAFTON CRUISES AT TEXAS

Matt Crafton won Friday night’s Truck series race at Texas Motor Speedway on speed and by stretching his fuel mileage.

Crafton and his team gambled on fuel, running the final 61 laps of the 167-lap race without stopping for fuel. It was his fifth truck series victory in 322 career starts.

“They told me I could make it all the way on fuel," said Crafton. “That helped because I could slow down so much. They’d let me run for five laps and then slow down for five laps. That is the hardest thing to do for a driver. But we had the fastest truck.”

Crafton finished a whopping 13.302-seconds ahead of runner-up and pole-sitter Justin Lofton. His margin of victory set a new series record at TMS, beating the previous mark of 11.817 seconds by Dennis Setzer in this event in 2004.

Lofton finished second, followed by Joe Nemechek, Ryan Blaney, John Wes Townley, Ron Hornaday, Johnny Sauter, Bryan Silas, Joey Coulter, and Darrell Wallace.

Top-10 leaders after 6 of 22: 1. Crafton-232, 2. Sauter-221, 3. Hornaday-209, 4. Blaney-207, 5. Peters-205, 6. Quiroga-200, 7. Kennedy-199, 8. Townley-196, 9. Burton-185, 10. Coulter-177.

KASEY KAHNE IS STRUGGLING

While Kasey Kahne’s three Hendrick Racing teammates, Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. are having a good season, Kahne and his No. 5 team have not displayed a lot of championship potential.

Kahne’s last win came in 2013 at Pocono, and he has only one top-five finish which came last month at Kansas.

“We’ve been really good in practice; great at times during the race, but we haven’t put together the full race. And when we have, it’s been one and then we forget how for the next three, and then come back for the fourth one and run pretty well,” Kahne told Jim Utter of the Charlotte Observer..

This is his third season at Hendrick, and in each of the previous year’s he has rallied to secure a spot in the Chase.

“I think there has been a touch of bad luck and then we just haven’t put together full races. We’ve had great practices over the last month, maybe a little more than that. We’ve been really good in practice; great at times during the race, but we haven’t put together the full race,” Kahne said at Pocono.

Kahne’s best stretch of previous races is yet to come. He has wins at Pocono and Michigan, even the road course in Sonoma. With NASCAR’s new Chase guidelines, all Kahne needs to do is win one race to get into this year’s Chase.

“I look at it as we need to score as many points as we can each week,” Kahne said. “Our stretch of tracks that we run really well at started about three weeks ago. It goes for another month, so hopefully we can hit on something over this upcoming span of races that we have. We haven’t yet, but we are in a good group of tracks for myself and our team.”

Kahne finished 42nd in the Pocono race.

Weekend Racing: The Cup and Nationwide teams are at the 2.0-mile Brooklyn, Michigan track, while the Trucks are at Gateway Raceway, just across the Mississippi River from St. Louis.

Sat., June 14, Nationwide Series race 13 of 33; Starting time: 1:30 pm ET: TV: ESPN.

Sat., June 14, Truck Series race 7 of 22; Starting time: 8 pm ET; TV: FoxSports1.

Sun, June 15, Sprint Cup race 15 of 36; Starting time: 12 noon ET; TV: TNT.

Racing Trivia Question: Which Cup team does Martin Truex drive for?

Last Week’s Question: Kasey Kahne was considered one of the best open-wheel drivers before switching to NASCAR. What year did he move to the NASCAR Nationwide Series? Answer. He made his Nationwide Series debut in 2002 with Robert Yates Racing.

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

Taylor Watkins

Taylor Watkins tried six sports during her time at Elk Lake High School.

It should then be no surprise that when Watkins made her way to track and field, she was open to trying more than one event.

Originally a runner and jumper when she switched from softball to track and field in her sophomore year, Watkins found her way to the javelin after the season had already started.

 “We only had a couple of javelin throwers,” Watkins said. “We had a “jav” practice one day to see if we could get more people to do it. I instantly knew this was what I would do as an event.”

Watkins showed potential immediately.

 “Coach told me my form was perfect and I threw it just right,” Watkins said.

Watkins built from that natural ability, becoming a three-time district medalist in the event and capping her career by earning the only medal by a Susquehanna County athlete at this year’s Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Track and Field Championships with a sixth-place finish in Class AA.

For her efforts, Watkins was named Susquehanna County Athlete of the Month for May.

Watkins improved throughout her career, gaining more than 20 feet in distance from the end of her sophomore season to the end of her senior year.

After placing fifth in District 2 as a sophomore, Watkins was third last year. She won the District 2 championship, beating out two other state qualifiers with a throw of 126-3, then reached 129-9 for her state medal.

Watkins played soccer in the fall of her freshman year before switching to tennis for the remaining three years. She played basketball as a freshman, sophomore and junior before switching to swimming as a senior.

Taylor is the daughter of Donald and Sharon Watkins of Dimock. She shares the distinction of district javelin champion with her brother Hunter, a sophomore who won the District 2 boys’ title on the way to finishing 13th in the state.