Sophomore Mike Pettit finished fifth in the 500-yard freestyle in 5:23.93 to lead Elk Lake at the District 2 Class AA Swimming Championships.

Elk Lake placed 11th out of 16 girls’ teams and 10th out of 12 boys’ teams at the championships, which were held Friday and Saturday at the Wilkes-Barre CYC.

The Warriors scored 50 points in the boys’ meet which Dallas won by edging Scranton Prep, 283-272.

Justin Grosvenor joined Pettit in scoring points in the 500 free, placing 12th.

The top 12 in each event scored points.

Petti was also 10th in the 100 free.

Zach Mead was seventh in the 200 individual medley and ninth in the 100 butterfly.

Mead and Pettit joined Nathan Grosvenor and Chase Orlandini to finish seventh in the 400 freestyle relay and ninth in the 200 freestyle relay.

Orlandi, Romey Washo, Justin Grosvenor, and Austin Dolaway were 12th in the 200 medley relay.

The Lady Warriors scored 38 points. Dallas also won the girls’ title with 271 points. Abington Heights was third with 178.

Leah Ofalt led the way. She was eighth in the 50 freestyle and 12th in the 100 butterfly. She was part of the seventh-place 200 freestyle relay and eighth-place 400 freestyle relay with Becca Sisson.

Cami Perry and Audra Everitt joined them on the 200 freestyle relay. Louise Thompson and Lydia Ofalt were the other members of the 400 freestyle relay team.

The 200 medley relay team of Perry, Lydia Ofalt, Thompson and Everitt placed ninth.

WEEK IN REVIEW

SCRANTON – Forest City and Old Forge staged their annual District 2 Class A girls’ basketball championship game Saturday afternoon at Lackawanna College, producing the usual result.

Old Forge never trailed on the way to a 52-35 victory for its fourth straight championship.

The Lady Devils and Lady Foresters have met in the last eight finals, since the reorganization of the schools in the Scranton Diocese consolidated severall small private schools that had done well on that level. Old Forge has won seven of those games, each by double-figures margins.

Tori Tansley made sure Saturday’s game followed a similar path.

The 5-foot-7 senior center scored 26 points, grabbed 15 rebounds and blocked four shots despite facing a Forest City defense that was designed to stop her.

Tansley, the top returning player from last year’s Old Forge state finalist, was limited in the number of times she touched the ball in the first half. After hitting just one field goal in each of the first two quarters, Tansley finished 8-for-15 from the floor and 10-for-12 from the line. She had 18 of her points in the second half.

Forest City struggled offensively.

The Foresters were just 5-for-22 (22.7 percent) from the field in the first half. Their starting lineup was 0-for-12 on 3-pointers in the game. Forest City did not get its first offensive rebound until the final two minutes of the third quarter.

Nina Pascolini had 12 points and four assists for Old Forge, which improved to 12-10 and earned a spot in the state tournament. Nicole Tagliaferri had five steals and four assists.

Forest City, which finished 11-12 and was the last basketball team competing in District 2, was led by Kendra Bendyk with 10 points.

Emily Lewis came off the bench to hit three 3-pointers in six tries and add nine points for the Lady Foresters. Katelyn Zembrzycki added eight points and a team-high six rebounds. MacKenzie Hartman and Madison McGraw each had five assists.

Pascolini got Old Forge off to a fast start, scoring seven points in the first 5:45 to help the Lady Devils run out to an 11-2 lead.

Old Forge stretched its 13-4 lead after one quarter to 26-12 at halftime.

The Lady Devils scored the last four points of the third quarter and first three of the fourth quarter for a 41-21 lead.

Lewis hit 3-pointers 28 seconds apart to cut the deficit to 41-27 with 5:42 left, the first of four times the Lady Foresters got within 14 points. Forest City was unable to get any closer.

In high school wrestling, Blue Ridge’s Dalton Hogle and Elk Lake’s Blaise Cleveland each finished sixth in the Class AA Northeast Regional at Williamsport Friday and Saturday.

Hogle, who dropped a pair of one-point decisions, and Cleveland each went 1-3 in the tournament where the top four in each weight class advanced to this week’s state tournament.

Hogle, the District 2 champion at 145 pounds, lost to Towanda’s Steven Yates, 6-5, in Friday night’s quarterfinals. He came back to post a 12-0 major decision over Jeremy Bergold of Meyers in Saturday morning’s consolations.

With a state berth on the line, Hogle then lost to Muncy’s Dakota Nixon, 10-3.

Yates won again in the rematch to determine fifth place, this time edging Hogle, 4-3.

Cleveland reached the 182-pound regional semifinal when he pinned Troy’s Zack Zimmerman with one second left in the first period.

The opening win gave Cleveland two shots at one more victory to make it to Hershey.

Montoursville’s Garrett Hoffman knocked Cleveland into the consolation portion of the bracket with a 16-0 technical fall in 5:27.  A disqualification at 4:59 cost Cleveland any chance of winning the consolation semifinal and the state berth that went with it.

Cleveland then forfeited the fifth-place match.

Montrose’s Jacob O’Brien was shut out in one match and pinned in the first period of the other at 106 pounds.

LOOKING BACK

Alexis Presley from Mountain View was second and Lindsey Rupakus from Blue Ridge was third in the girls’ 55-meter dash in the latest Baptist Bible College Indoor Track Invitational February 20 in Clarks Summit.

Colin Mondi was second in the boys’ high jump.

Mountain View’s Emmillie Miller and Blue Ridge’s Summer Bledsoe finished third in and fourth in the girls’ shot put.

Elk Lake placed Cody Oswald third in the 400 and Hunter Bedell fifth in the 1600 in the boys’ competition.

Mountain View had Lauren Schmidt take sixth in the girls’ high jump and Garrett Cameron eighth in the boys’ 55-meter dash.

COLLEGE CORNER

Heather Wimmer, a senior captain from Montrose, finished her career on the Marywood women’s swimming team during the Landmark Conference championships.

Wimmer finished seven out of 13 entries in 3-meter diving and 12th out of 16 in 1-meter diving.

Marywood finished fifth out of nine teams in the standings.

THE WEEK AHEAD

Spring high sports practices started Tuesday.

Tennis can begin intersquad scrimmages as early as Saturday and matches as early as Monday.

Track and field, baseball, softball and boys’ volleyball can scrimmage starting Saturday but cannot have their first regular-season events until at least March 20.

The harsh winter, however, will likely have an impact on the actual starting dates on baseball and softball fields.

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.

JOHNSON WINS AT ATLANTA

Jimmie Johnson

HAMPTON, Geo.—Jimmie Johnson and his No. 48 team made a strong statement this past Sunday about their ability to win big races. Johnson, who led 92 laps in the 325-lap Sprint Cup race took the lead after the last restart on lap 311 and waved ‘bye-bye’ to the rest of the field.

He crossed the finish line over two-seconds ahead of runner-up Kevin Harvick.

“I’m just excited about what we did today,” said Johnson. “Yesterday this was a top-10 car. We had a few problems on pit road, but once we got them sorted out we were able to go racing.”

Harvick, winner of Saturday’s Xfinity race had a fast car and led 116-laps, most of them during the middle stages of the race.

“I had one bad restart, and I never recovered from it,” said Harvick.

In reality, Harvick did get boxed in on a restart, but it came during an earlier restart, on lap 303. Brett Moffitt spun his tires and caused Harvick to lose a couple spots. Harvick’s last restart on lap 311 was a good one, and all he could do was watch as the faster No. 48, driven by Johnson, moved further and further ahead of him.

Had it not been for a large piece of debris that tore up the grill of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s car on lap 317, Harvick would have probably been relegated to a third-place finish. As it was, Earnhardt, who was running second behind Johnson, but ahead of Harvick lost some of the handling on his car, and slipped back to third.

“That’s just one of those racing deals,” said Earnhardt. “After it hit my car, I began to get loose. I didn’t have anything for Jimmie, but I probably could have held second.”

Joey Logano was fourth followed by, Matt Kenseth, Martin Truex, AJ Allmendinger, Brett Moffitt, Brad Keselowski, and Ryan Newman.

There was a multi-car wreck with 70 to go that took out Jeff Gordon, Denny Hamlin, and Jamie McMurray. Several other cars were involved but managed to continue racing.

“I saw the 11-car getting loose and I tried to get away from him,” said McMurray. “I lost control and wound up in the wall.”

The last wreck occurred on lap 304 and involved the seven cars of, Ricky Stenhouse, Greg Biffle, Tony Stewart, Clint Bowyer, Joe Nemechek, Regan Smith, and Kyle Larson. There was so much debris on the front straightaway that NASCAR red-flagged the race in order to clean up the racing surface.

Top-16 Chase Leaders after 2 of 36:1. Logano-88, 2. Johnson-87, 3. Harvick-86, 4. Earnhardt-84, 5. Truex-75, 6. Mears-68, 7. Kahne-65, 8. Allmendinger-62, 9. Almirola-62, 10. Bowyer-58, 11. Gilliland-56, 12. Hornish-55, 13. Biffle-54, 14. Edwards-54, 15. Ragan-53, 16. Patrick-53.

ATLANTA XFINITY RACE GOES TO HARVICK

“Happy” Harvick had a great performance Saturday at Atlanta, holding off Joey Logano during the last half of the race.

Harvick has won the race for the past three years, while Logano has finished as runner-up the past two years.

Ty Dillon was third, followed by Chris Buescher, Chase Elliott, Paul Menard, Brian Scott, Matt Kenseth, Regan Smith and Kyle Larson.

Top-10 leaders after 2 of 32: 1.C. Buescher-83, 2. T. Dillon-83, 3. Reed-75, 4. Wallace-66, 5. Armstrong-57, 6. Starr-56, 7. Scott-56, 8. Elliott-55, 9. Chastain-55, 10. Clements-53.

CRAFTON TAKES ATLANTA TRUCK RACE

Matt Crafton had an easy time in winning Saturday’s Truck race. His margin of victory was 8.752-seconds over second-place driver Ty Dillon.

The remaining top-10 drivers: 3. Ben Kennedy, 4. Daniel Suarez, 5. Tyler Reddick, 6. Johnny Sauter, 7. Erik Jones, 8. James Buescher, 9. Timothy Peters, 10.Joe Nemechek.

Top-10 leaders after 2 of 22: 1. Reddick-87, 2. Crafton-85, 3. Jones-80, 4. Sauter-72, 5. J. Buescher-63, 6. Silas-60, 7. Kennedy-58, 8. Black-58, 9. J. Nemechek-58, 10. Forrister-56.

NASCAR ANNOUNCES 2016 HOF NOMINEES

NASCAR has announced their list of 20 nominees for the 2016 Hall of Fame class.

Buddy Baker, won 19 times, including the Daytona 500 and Southern 500.

Red Byron, first NASCAR premier series champion, in 1949.

Richard Childress, 11-time car owner champion in NASCAR's three national series.

Jerry Cook, six-time NASCAR Modified champion.

Ray Evernham, three-time NASCAR premier series championship crew chief.

Ray Fox, legendary engine builder and owner of cars driven by many legendary drivers.

Rick Hendrick, 14-time car owner champion in NASCAR's three national series.

Harry Hyde, 1970 NASCAR premier series championship crew chief.

Bobby Isaac, 1970 NASCAR premier series champion.

Alan Kulwicki, 1992 NASCAR premier series champion.

Terry Labonte, two-time NASCAR premier series champion.

Mark Martin, 96-time race winner in NASCAR national series competition.

Hershel McGriff, 1986 NASCAR west series champion.

Raymond Parks, NASCAR's first champion car owner.

Benny Parsons, 1973 NASCAR premier series champion.

Larry Phillips, only five-time NASCAR weekly series national champion.

O. Bruton Smith, builder of Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Mike Stefanik, winner of record-tying nine NASCAR championships.

Curtis Turner, early personality, called the "Babe Ruth of stock car racing".

Robert Yates, won NASCAR premier series championship engine builder and owner.

These 20 nominees will be voted on in October, 2015, and the top-5 will be inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte in January, 2016.

Weekend Racing: The Cup and Xfinity teams travel west to the 1.5-mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The first race was in 2005, which was won by Jimmie Johnson. Brad Keselowski was the 2014 winner. This track, which is owned by Bruton Smith, has proven to be extremely popular with local fans. It has a seating capacity of 137,000, and is almost sold out for every race. It has become one of the most popular tracks on the NASCAR circuit, and its possible NASCAR will award it a second race date in the near future.

Sat, Mar. 7; Xfinity Series race 2 of 32; Starting time: 4 pm ET; TV: FoxSports 1.

Sun, Mar. 8; sprint Cup race 3 of 36; Starting time: 3:30 pm ET; TV: Fox.

Racing Trivia Question: What year did Dale Earnhardt Jr. move up the NASCAR Sprint Cup ranks?

Last Week’s Question: Many drivers from Owensboro, Kentucky have raced in NASCAR. Can you name at least three? Answer. Darrell and Michael Waltrip, Jeff, David, and Mark Green, and Jeremy Mayfield.

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

The Susquehanna Youth Wrestling Team

Congratulations to Susquehanna youth wrestling for their first place finish in this year’s district league meet at Wallenpaupack. These young champions put it all out on the mat, to win it all this year. Thanks to coaches Bill Collins, Dennis Gow, Brian Woodruff and Craig Hubal and all of our wrestlers for the dedication to make it happen and to all of the parents for getting them back and forth to practice, tournaments and league events.

Date    Track/Facility

Sat, Feb. 14     Sprint Unlimited/Daytona

Thu, Feb. 19    Budweiser Duel 1

Thu, Feb. 19    Budweiser Duel 2

Sun, Feb. 22    Daytona 500

Sun, Mar. 1     Atlanta Motor Speedway

Sun, Mar. 8     Las Vegas Motor Speedwayi

Sun, Mar. 15   Phoenix International Raceway

Sun, Mar. 22   Fontana, California

Sun, Mar. 29   Martinsville Speedway

Sat, Apr. 11     Texas Motor Speedway

Sun, Apr. 19    Bristol Motor Speedway

Sat, Apr. 25     Richmond International Raceway

Sun, May 3      Talladega Superspeedway

Sat, May 9       Kansas Speedway

Fri, May 15     Sprint Showdown, Charlotte

Sat, May 16     Sprint All-Star, Charlotte

Sun, May 24    Charlotte Motor Speedway

Sun, May 31    Dover Speedway

Sun, June 7      Pocono Raceway

Sun, June 14    Michigan Speedway

Sun, June 28    Sonoma, California

Sun, July 5      Daytona International Speedway

Sat, July 11     Kentucky Speedway

Sun, July 19    New Hampshire Speedway

Sun, July 26    Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Sun, Aug. 2     Pocono Raceway

Sun, Aug. 9     Watkins Glen, NY

Sun, Aug 16    Michigan Speedway

Sat, Aug. 22    Bristol Motor Speedway

Sun, Sept. 6     Darlington Raceway

Sat, Sept. 12    Richmond International Raceway

Sun, Sept. 20   Chicagoland Speedway

Sun, Sept. 27   New Hampshire Speedway

Sun, Oct. 4      Dover Speedway

Sat, Oct. 10     Charlotte Motor Speedway

Sun, Oct. 18    Kansas Speedway

Sun, Oct. 25    Talladega Superspeedway

Sun, Nov. 1     Martinsville Speedway

Sun, Nov. 8     Texas Motor Speedway

Sun, Nov. 15   Phoenix International Raceway

Sun, Nov. 22   Homestead-Miami Speedway

Following is the area’s 2015 stocking schedule for Trout (clip & save). Anyone interested is invited to assist local game commissioners in the annual event.

DATE	WATERWAY	MEETING PLACE	TIME
3/9/2015	Quaker Lake	Quaker Lake Parking Lot	1:00 PM
3/16/2015	Salt Lick Creek	Trail Diner New Milford	1:00 PM
3/23/2015	Sake Creek	Emberz Montrose	1:00 PM
3/30/2015	EM Wyalusing	Intersection 706 & 3029	1:00 PM
3/30/2015	NB Wyalusing	Intersection 706 & 3029	1:00 PM
4/08/2015	Canawacta Creek	Lanesboro Community Center	1:15 PM
4/8/2015	Starrucca Creek	Lanesboro Community Center	1:15 PM
4/14/2015	Fall Brook	Emberz Montrose	1:00 PM
4/14/2015	Silver Creek	Emberz Montrose	1:00 PM
4/15/2015	Tuscarora Creek	Dandy Mart Wysox	12:00 PM
4/15/2015	Wysox Creek	Dandy Mart Wysox	12:00 PM
4/20/2015	Starrucca Creek	Lanesboro Community Center	1:15 PM
4/22/2015	Gaylord Creek	Intersection 706 & 3029	1:00 PM
4/22/2015	NB Wyalusing	Intersection 706 & 3029	1:00 PM
4/28/2015	Fall Brook	Quaker Lake Parking Lot	1:00 PM
4/28/2015	Quaker Lake	Quaker Lake Parking Lot	1:00 PM
4/28/2015	Silver Creek	Quaker Lake Parking Lot	1:00 PM
4/30/2015	EB Wyalusing	Intersection 706 & 3029	1:00 PM
5/1/2015	Tuscarora Creek	Dandy Mart Wysox	12:00 PM
5/1/2015	Wysox Creek	Dandy Mart Wysox	12:00 PM
5/12/2015	Salt Lick Creek	Trail Diner	1:00 PM
5/12/2015	Silver Creek	Trail Diner	1:00 PM
5/12/2015	Snake Creek	Trail Diner	1:00 PM
6/1/2015	Quaker Lake (fingerling)	Parking Lot	12:30 PM

 

The 30 most critical days for winter deer survival have a name, and it is March. 

White tail deer

Deer have a limited supply of fat reserves to carry them through winter. In fact, research at the University of New Hampshire showed that a healthy doe begins winter with a 90-day fat supply. This ticking clock begins winding down in March and is the reason why weather patterns in this month often play the biggest role in deer mortality. 

If January and February are brutal but relief comes on time with warming temperatures in March, most deer will sail through with no trouble. If January and February are mild but winter lingers until the end of March, or brutal cold and snow hit late, deer carcasses can begin to pile up.

If March 2015 comes in like a lion and eats the lamb for breakfast, can we do anything to give struggling deer a survival kit to help more of them see April?

The best option is to give them more of the winter foods they are already adapted to eating: winter browse. This includes buds and twigs of woody plants. Introducing new foods in the middle of winter, especially in high quantities all of a sudden, can actually be more harmful to deer than not feeding them at all.

In my home state of Georgia, we don’t often see big problems with winter deer mortality. So I talked to our Education & Outreach Director, Kip Adams, who is from Pennsylvania. Before he worked for QDMA, Kip was the deer project leader for New Hampshire Fish & Game. Kip was involved in many annual winter surveys looking at wintering areas and deer mortality.

“A deer has to eat a new food for one to two weeks before it can start pulling in nutrients from that food,” Kip told me. “This is because it takes time for the micro-flora – the bacteria that live in the deer’s gut and help with digestion – to adjust and become capable of dealing with the new food source. The best thing you can do during March, if conditions are severe, is to give deer more food of similar quality to what they’ve already been eating throughout winter, and that’s woody browse.”

Put Woody Browse in Reach

This means breaking out the chainsaw or lopping shears and putting more buds and twigs within reach of deer (like the buds on a twig end seen in the photo on the right). By late winter, especially in a tough winter like we’ve seen in 2014, much of the reachable browse may be gone. Use hinge-cutting to drop branched trees and shrubs within reach of deer.

      Tree branch with buds

“Do any type of TSI (timber stand improvement) where you’re putting those buds at ground level where deer can consume them,” Kip said. “Some of the better species to cut are trees like red maple and yellow birch, but the species is less important than the quantity. There’s not a lot of difference in the nutritional quality of the buds and twigs by species. Quantity is more important.”

Of course, hinge-cutting and TSI can also help enhance the quality of deer habitat in the long run, producing more browse and cover at ground level for future winters. 

Also, if you grow apple trees or maybe ornamentals in your yard that require pruning, leave the pruned limbs in piles where deer can reach them. 

Don’t Disturb Deer

When you head out with your chainsaw, do your best to avoid going into known bedding or yarding areas, where you might disturb bedded deer.

“If weather conditions remain severe in March, don’t go into cover to look for shed antlers or do habitat work,” said Kip. “Deer are counting on their fat reserves, which are running low by March. Don’t make them waste any additional energy running to escape from you.”

Think Before You Feed

If you haven’t already been providing supplemental feed, don’t introduce it suddenly in large amounts in late winter.

“The worst thing we can do for deer in a tough winter is shock their system by providing a new food, particularly a high-energy food such as corn or high-protein food such as alfalfa hay that they are not used to,” said Kip. “In most cases, it ends up being worse for the deer than if they had not been fed. The benefits of supplemental feeding come from long-term feeding, not from a short-term food supply when deer are already in poor condition. So, if you’ve been providing supplemental feed, continue to do so. If you have not been, do not start now.” 

If you can’t supply woody browse, and you feel you have no other option but to provide a new food source, introduce it slowly, in tiny amounts, at multiple sites scattered across the landscape. Give deer time to adjust over a period of two or more weeks before providing unlimited amounts of feed for deer to consume. 

“It comes down to how poor their condition is when they are exposed to the new food and how much of that food they get,” said Kip. “The worse shape they are in when they receive the food, the more likely they are to die from it. Lots of studies have shown this.”

Remember Predators

If you do provide supplemental feed, provide it at as many locations as possible rather than at one or two sites to avoid creating concentration points that predators, like coyotes, will use to their advantage.

“Deer are in the poorest condition all year in March, and they are easier prey for coyotes,” said Kip. “In our winter surveys in New Hampshire, we often found increased coyote predation around feeding sites. These sites were funneling a lot of deer into a small area and making them easier for coyotes to kill.”

If you’re concerned about deer survival in this year’s tough winter conditions, the best thing you can do to help them get through the critical last days of March is break out the chainsaw and provide more of the food they are adapted to eat in winter: woody browse.

Meanwhile, let’s all hope and pray for an early spring. The deer, and deer hunters, need it badly this year!