Valley View won all five of its matches to win the Zurn-Bush Memorial Wrestling Duals at Elk Lake Saturday.
The three county teams – Elk Lake, Mountain View and Blue Ridge – split against each other and finished 1-4.
Lackawanna Trail was second with a 4-1 record, followed by Scranton Prep at 3-2.
The teams have had similar results in league matches. Blue Ridge and Mountain View are 1-2 in Lackawanna League Division 2 action while Elk Lake and Montrose are 0-3.
Mountain View defeated Elk Lake, 48-18, Wednesday in a match that featured just five bouts and 11:06 of wrestling because of forfeits by each team.
Collin Burt (145), Jake Napierkowski (152) and Schae Thomas (170) had pins for the Eagles.
WEEK IN REVIEW
Elk Lake trimmed the list of Lackawanna League Division 4 boys’ basketball unbeatens from three to two Saturday with a 65-62 victory at Forest City.
Hunter Watkins and Bailey Newhart scored 17 each to lead the Warriors. Dalton Sherman added 13 and Cole Tyler 11 for Elk Lake, which erased a 10-point halftime deficit to improve to 2-0 in the division.
Noah Fedak led Forest City (2-1) with 16 points while Adam Kowalewski added 14.
Montrose leads the division at 3-0.
In girls’ basketball, Montrose and Forest City share the division lead at 3-0.
In wrestling, former Elk Lake wrestler and coach Bob Hegedty guided his Tunkhannock team to three individual titles and a tie for third place in the Wyoming Valley Conference Tournament Friday and Saturday at Lake-Lehman.
In professional hockey, three Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and one Binghamton Senator were named to the Eastern Conference team for the American Hockey League All-Star Classic.
The skills competition is scheduled for Jan. 25 in Utica, N.Y. The All-Star Game is the next night.
Veteran forward Tom Kostopoulos, the Penguins’ all-time leader in many statistical categories, has been selected as captain of the Eastern Conference team. Goalie Jeff Zatkoff and defenseman Derek Pouliot have also been picked along with Binghamton Senators forward Chris Wideman.
Kostopoulos has 17 points in 33 games, Pouliot has 20 in 23 games and Wideman has 29 in 32 games. Zatkoff has three shutouts, a 1.69 goals against average and .932 save percentage.
Each team has 12 forwards, eight defensemen and three goaltenders determined by committees of AHL coaches.
In professional baseball, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders announced that Dave Miley will return for his ninth straight season as manager of the Triple-A team in Moosic.
Pitching coach Scott Aldred also returns. Marcus Thames is the new hitting coach and Justin Tordi will be the defensive coach.
Baseball America named Miley Manager of the Year for all of minor-league baseball in 2012.
COLLEGE CORNER
Heather Wimmer, a senior diver from Montrose, is a captain on the Marywood University women’s swimming team.
Wimmer was a second-team Landmark Conference all-star in the 3-meter dive in each of the past two seasons.
Marywood is off to a 4-4 start. The Pacers finished up the first semester by placing ninth out of 12 teams at the Gompei Invitational in Worcester, Mass.
Wimmer finished seventh out of 10 in 1-meter diving and 11th out of 20 in 3-meter diving.
THE WEEK AHEAD
Defending champion Elk Lake is at Montrose, one of the leading contenders, in a Lackawanna League Division 4 boys’ basketball game Tuesday, Jan. 20.
The Warriors and Meteors started the week as the last two unbeatens in the division.
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.
THE STATE OF NASCAR
Brian France speaks on the State of NASCAR last week. Furnished by NASCAR
NASCAR Chairman Brian France discussed shorter races, midweek events and the new Chase during his appearance last week on Motor Racing Network’s “NASCAR Live.’’
Asked about shorter races, France said: “We think that shorter races in general makes sense. Sometimes a specific venue or a track believes differently, and they have their own fan base and research that says, ‘Hey we like a 500-mile race on this particular weekend’ or in the case of Charlotte a 600-mile event. Generally speaking, we’re very open to working with the tracks and the local markets … to shorten races whenever it’s possible and we will continue to do that.’’
One notion that has been discussed in recent years has been the idea of a midweek NASCAR Sprint Cup race. France talked more of the challenges of such events than any possible advantages.
He said no track operators want to trade a weekend race for a midweek event.
“The other challenge that we have, we don’t have home teams, we rely on 80,000-100,000 or even more to make a weekend out of something and drive on average 200-plus miles and often stay more than two days and often bring their families,’’ France said.
“When you start doing that … those kinds of opportunities to draw people to these big venues, these big speedways becomes more difficult.’’
As to the idea of a road course in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, France said neither of the two road courses on the circuit are willing to trade their dates. France said that officials are not opposed to it but doesn’t see it happening soon.
While the Chase provided some memorable moments, not all fans were happy with the format that saw drivers eliminated every third race. France said any changes to the Chase would have to keep the format simple.
“We will be open-minded, but we want to balance making sure that whatever format we have that everybody understands it,’’ France said.
“Even if it can make it better, if it makes it a little more complicated, then it doesn’t really matter if it makes better because it’s too difficult for people to understand. What we have today is a very, very understandable format.’’
France also discussed how the sport will react to domestic violence issues. Dover Police stated Tuesday that it has completed its investigation of an alleged domestic violence complaint against Kurt Busch and forwarded its findings to prosecutors who will determine if Busch should be charged.
“What leagues might have done in the past won’t be acceptable in the future and we will be no exception there,’’ France said. “We will have a strong and bright line and if that is crossed, you can expect us to be very, very aggressive with dealing with that. I know we have Kurt Busch as an example who is going through his allegation. We will watch that carefully and see what happens.
“What we wouldn’t do is try to get out in front of a set of facts that hasn’t been determined by the court system. We will be careful in letting a fair process take place (before reacting).’’
France also said there is no specific timeline on when officials will sign a company to replace Sprint as series sponsor. Sprint’s sponsorship goes through the 2016 season.
“You want to be careful and you want to be selective and make a really good decision because that’s the critical partner that we have,’’ France said. “So it isn’t just even about financially getting everything right, it’s really about who is going to be in that position and is going to utilize the rights that are granted, which are enormous, really, really well.’’
France also was asked by a fan about ringing tracks with SAFER barriers.
“I’m in favor of SAFER barriers wherever they need to be,’’ France said. “If that’s the whole racetrack, that’s fine. If it’s just to put them when there’s no impact, that doesn’t make a lot of sense to us. That’s how we view it. It’s always under review. We typically do add quite a bit of SAFER barriers depending on what venue every year.’’
Another fan asked France how series officials determine when to penalize drivers for their comments.
“We try to give the most latitude of any other sport in terms of what our drivers and our other participants can say and do,’’ France said. “Where we take objection is when there … (are comments) derogatory toward the racing product. When that happens, we have to draw a line.
KAHNE GETS THREE YEAR EXTENSION
There was speculation Kasey Kahne might be on the way out at Hendrick Motorsports.
But that won’t be the case
After 15th place finish last season, and a 12th in 2013, the rumor mill had it that Chase Elliott, who won the Nationwide title last year would replace Kahne. But apparently Hendrick saw something in Kahne’s racing abilities that he liked, because he signed him to a three year contract extension.
“It’s extremely gratifying to work with a driver like Kasey,” Rick Hendrick said. “I think the world of him both as a driver with championship-level talent and an overall terrific young man. Our whole organization has a great deal of respect for how hard he works, the professionalism he displays with our partners and the way he carries himself every day. We’re committed to winning races and competing for titles with him for many years to come.”
It seems obvious why they would be able to sign Kahne. While the results haven’t been stellar, they’re still Chase for the Championship material and there was a win (Atlanta) on the season. Beyond that, Kahne is very marketable towards the lady fan-base, being “cute” as they call him and only 33 years old. Still, with the reasons stated, Kahne will need to have a top-10 season if he wants to showcase why Rick Hendrick was right in re-signing him.
Kahne will have Keith Rodden as his new crew chief in 2015. Rodden spent last season at Chip Ganassi Racing working with Jamie McMurray.
Perhaps the influence of new blood with a fresh perspective will bring forth the set-up ideas that Kahne needs to get the right car underneath him to perform. If given a good car, Kahne can go out and dominate on any of the mile and a half tracks on the NASCAR circuit.
Despite his latest issues involving a domestic violence allegation from former girlfriend, Cup series driver Kurt Busch would be welcomed back to Andretti Autosport in the 99th Indianapolis 500, team owner Michael Andretti told FOXSports.com. Andretti has told Busch he can drive for his Verizon IndyCar Series team "any time" and stands behind that promise for the 99th Indianapolis 500 on May 24, 2015.
“I am a big supporter of Kurt and if we are able to put a deal together for him to run the Indianapolis 500 I will still run him,” Andretti told FOXSports.com. “He did a great job at the Indy 500 last year. Right now, our focus is on putting a fourth car together but there is still a possibility for something to come together for Indy. I would love to do it with Kurt Busch again.”
Racing Trivia Question: Where is Kasey Kahne’s hometown?
Last Week’s Question: What will the Nationwide Series be known as in 2015? It will be known as the Xfinity Series.
You may contact the Racing Reporter at: www.hodges@race500.com.
Jack Fruehan
When the boys’ basketball season opened, Jack Fruehan had started one game in his career and Division 4 of the Lackawanna League was looking for a potential contender to establish itself.
By the time the first month of the season ended, Fruehan was clearly a force in the middle and his Montrose Meteors had emerged as a strong threat to end Elk Lake’s reign as division champion.
Fruehan led the way during the holiday break when Montrose won the title of the Susquehanna County Christmas Tournament, pounding defending champion Elk Lake, 61-37, in the final.
After earning tournament Most Valuable Player honors, Fruehan has been named Susquehanna County Transcript Athlete of the Month for December.
“I played AAU last spring and just put a lot of work into my game in the summer,” said Fruehan, a 6-foot-4, 215-pound senior center.
That worked showed when Fruehan averaged 14.9 points per game to lead the team during the month.
Montrose joined Forest City as the only Division 4 teams to win at least half of their games in the non-league portion of the schedule and improved to 4-3 by beating Blue Ridge in the only division game played before the New Year.
Fruehan went to work early in the tournament, scoring 10 points in the first quarter of the semifinal when the Meteors took a 14-point lead on their way to a 62-51 victory over Blue Ridge.
“He’s a big center and, for Susquehanna County, he’s an even bigger center,” Montrose coach Tim Lopez said. “He worked on his game a lot this summer.
“When we’re working inside-out, we’re tough to beat.”
That’s exactly the approach Montrose took in the final after Fruehan scored 25 points against Blue Ridge.
Fruehan scored 13 more points in the victory over Elk Lake, but he also led the team in assists (five) as well as rebounds (seven).
“It’s something I look for,” Fruehan said of his passes, which on three occasions had him kick the ball out from the low post to a teammate on the perimeter for an open 3-pointer. “I know a lot of teams will try to double team.”
Fruehan has been a member of the football and basketball teams for four seasons. He started as a tight end/defensive end in the fall. He contributed to Montrose’s division track and field championship last spring as a hurdler and triple jumper who also ran on some relays.
Jack is the son of Francis and Kim Fruehan of Brackney.
