Lackawanna League spring sports seasons are scheduled to start this week and next, but many outdoor openers are likely to be delayed as fields become ready for competition following a harsh winter.

The Lackawanna Track Conference set track and field crossovers, which do not count in the standings, for this week. Division openers are set for Tuesday, March 31.

Montrose is the defending champion in Division 4 in both boys’ and girls’ track where it competes against Blue Ridge, Elk Lake, Mountain View, Susquehanna and Lackawanna Trail.

Tennis was scheduled to begin Monday and boys’ volleyball was set to open Tuesday.

Elk Lake has joined the tennis league where it competes in the Class AA Division along with Montrose and eight other teams. The 16 league teams, including six from Class AAA, play each other once each.

Blue Ridge, Elk Lake, Forest City, Mountain View and Susquehanna play in the Lackawanna League in boys’ volleyball along with Abington Heights, Lackawanna Trail and Western Wayne.

Baseball and softball are scheduled for Monday, March 30 openers. All six county schools compete in Division 4 of the Lackawanna League along with Lackawanna Trail.

WEEK IN REVIEW

Old Forge became the first Lackawanna League girls’ basketball team to reach two straight Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association state championship games, but it did not end well for the Lady Devils.

District 2’s only representative in state championship weekend at the Giant Center in Hershey suffered an 86-38 loss to Vincentian Academy Saturday for the largest margin of defeat in any PIAA girls’ basketball final in any classification. Vincentian also set a record for points in a Class A final.

Vincentian was in the final for the third straight year. The District 7 champions (30-1) repeated their state title by forcing 45 turnovers, including 28 in the first half.

Brenna Wise, a 6-foot-1 University of Pittsburgh recruit, led the way with a triple-double of 30 points, 13 steals and 11 rebounds. Alexis Griggs, a 6-foot junior forward, added 24 points and three blocked shots.

Vincentian moved ahead in the third minute, ran off 20 straight points in the first quarter then scored the first 13 of the second quarter for a 39-8 lead.

Tori Tansley led the Lady Devils (16-11) with 14 points. Nina Pascolini added 11 points. Nicole Talgiaferri had a team-high eight rebounds.

The Lady Devils returned to Hershey with the most dramatic of their growing list of state tournament wins.

Tansley scored 24 of her 28 points after halftime when Old Forge defeated Portage, 45-42, in double overtime March 17 at Cumberland Valley.

Portage had a 16-2 lead in the first quarter, then, after falling behind, hit shots in the closing seconds of regulation and overtime to extend the game.

In professional hockey, Max McCormick and Shane Prince scored third-period goals Saturday night to lift the Binghamton Senators to a 4-3 American Hockey League victory over the host Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

Peter Mannino made 33 saves in the win.

The Penguins finished with a 36-23 lead in shots and carried a 3-2 lead into the third period.

McCormick tied it 1:39 into the period and Prince scored the game-winner with 5:51 remaining.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (36-21-3-4) is close to clinching an Eastern Conference playoff berth while Binghamton (28-28-7-1) is in serious danger of missing the postseason.

COLLEGE CORNER

Kurt Kimsey, a junior from Montrose, is helping Marywood University launch its men’s track and field program.

Kimsey had the first top-five finish in school history last year when the Pacers were competing as a club sport when he finished fifth at the Muhlenberg Spring Invitational with a javelin throw of 175-10.

With Marywood competing its first year as an intercollegiate program, Kimsey is again succeeding. He won the javelin at the Disney Track and Field open Saturday in Florida in Marywood’s first event as an intercollegiate team.

Kimsey’s throw of 175-10 was the best of 14 competitors. He was ninth out of 19 in the discus with a throw of 117-1.

THE WEEK AHEAD

Defending champion Western Wayne is at Mountain View Thursday in a meeting of the top two Lackawanna League teams in last year’s boys' volleyball standings.

In track and field, the Lackawanna League Division openers are set for Tuesday, March 31 with Blue Ridge at Elk Lake, Mountain View at Montrose and Lackawanna Trail at Susquehanna.

In high school baseball, the Monday, March 30 Division 4 openers include defending champion Mountain View at Susquehanna, Forest City at Montrose and Lackawanna Trail at Elk Lake.

The same schools are scheduled to meet the same day in softball where Montrose is the defending champion. The Mountain View at Susquehanna game matches the teams that tied for second place, one game behind Montrose.

In professional hockey, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins are at the Binghamton Senators Friday night in a meeting of American Hockey League rivals.

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.

KESELOWSKI WINS G-W-C THRILLER

Brad Keselowski and his girlfriend Paige White after he won the California Sprint Cup race. Furnished by NASCAR

FONTANA, Calif.—Brad Keselowski’s four-tire pit stop allowed him to outrace Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch in Sunday’s Sprint Cup race.

“I had no idea if we could win it,” said Keselowski. “I knew we had a car that could run with them, but it was the team’s decision to put on all four. And it turned out to be the right call.”

A caution came out on lap 199 of the 200-lap race forcing it into overtime with Busch leading and Harvick running second.

All the leaders pitted. Harvick’s team intended to put four fresh tires on his No. 4 Chevrolet, but once the two right side tires were on, he sped out of his pit. Busch only took two right side tires, while Keselowski waited around for all four tires to be changed.

Back on the track, Busch and Harvick were the leaders, while Keselowski was back in 14th.

Busch and Harvick raced each other for one lap, and then another caution came out.

On the restart, it was again Busch and Harvick, but Keselowski had moved up to sixth. When the green flag was given, Keselowski was on the move.

Before the white flag was given, signifying one more lap, Keselowski had gotten by Harvick and had his sights set squarely on the one remaining car in front of him, the No. 41 driven by Kurt Busch.

He was even with Busch as they entered turn-3. Busch was running up against the outside wall, so Keselowski dove down, and as they exited turn-4, and headed for the checkered flag, the new leader was Keselowski. Busch scraped the outside wall, allowing Harvick to edge him out for the second spot.

Had it not been for Harvick’s miscue, he might have been him standing in victory lane for his third consecutive win.

“What a race,” said Harvick. “It all happened so fast. I’m not sure two tires were the way to go, but that was our call, and we’ll live with it.”

Busch led 65 laps, the most of any driver, but had to settle for third.

“We had an awesome car all day long,” said Busch. “We just got hung out. Brad’s four tires were better than our two. I drove it as hard as I could, and there at the end I got up a little too high.”

Paul Menard finished fourth, followed by Ryan Newman, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Joey Logano, Martin Truex, Jimmie Johnson, and Jeff Gordon.

Denny Hamlin led 56 laps, mostly during the middle portion of the race. He was assessed a stop-and-go penalty by NASCAR because his team allowed a tire to roll outside their pit box on the race’s last caution. He wound up finishing 28th.

Top-16 Chase contenders after 5 of 26: 1. Harvick-225, 2. Logano-197, 3. Truex-192, 4. Earnhardt-164, 5. Keselowski-163, 6. Newman-162, 7. Johnson-159, 8. Kahne-159, 9. Menard-152, 10. Almirola-138, 11. Allmendinger-137, 12. Mears-132, 13. Kenseth-127, 14. Hamlin-126, 15. ragan-124, 16. McMurray-120.

HARVICK ROLLS TO XFINITY WIN

Kevin Harvick put a whipping on the rest of the field in Saturday’s Xfinity race at Fontana. He led four times for 100 laps of the 150-lap race, and was ahead by 3.317-seconds when he crossed the finish line.

Brendan Gaughan finished second, followed by Erik Jones, Chase Elliott, Chris Buescher, Brian Scott, Kyle Larson, Brad Keselowski, Regan Smith, and Elliott Sadler.

Top-10 leaders after 5 of 32: 1. T. Dillon-187, 2. C. Buescher-182, 3. Elliott-172, 4. Reed-168, 5. D. Wallace-165, 6. Gaughan-164, 7. Smith-157, 8. Sadler-148, 9. Starr-136, 10. Scott-134.

THE HIGH COST OF RACING

Most racing fans are aware that NASCAR is like a traveling side show; a two-three day expensive carnival, that’s costly not only for the fans that attend, but especially for the team owners.

A conservative estimate of building a Sprint Cup car and getting it on the track is in the neighborhood of $300,000-$350,000.

Sounds overpriced doesn’t it? Let’s look at where the dollars go.

Last week Michael Waltrip Racing answered a lawsuit by an employee, who was fired from his $160,000 a year job.

Brandon Hopkins was a tire changer on weekends, and a shop worker during the week.

He was allegedly fired for stealing one of the team’s air guns, which could cost up to $1-million to develop and manufacture.

Sound far fetched? It’s all in the court records of North Carolina Superior Court in Charlotte.

Engines top out at around $100,000 each. Other parts, pieces and equipment that go into the car run another $125,000. Tires are almost $500 each, and a team uses up to 16 sets per race for a total of $32,000. Travel to and from the track for each team: $75,000-$90,000.

Oh yes, NASCAR charges $5,000 to inspect each car. If a team wrecks a car during practice and has to go to a backup, that’s another $5,000.

Don’t forget that all NASCAR teams have airplanes, pilots, truck drivers, and engineers in addition to their regular shop staff.

So now, let’s look at the official NASCAR Phoenix payout for Jamie McMurray and Kyle Larson, the two Ganassi Racing teams. McMurray finished second and earned $194,931. Teammate Kyle Larson came in 10th and took in $116,438.

The two teams had $311,369 in total NASCAR earnings. Each driver gets at least 40 per cent of his winnings, so based on that figure, Ganassi Racing took home $186,821. Their estimated total racing costs for the Phoenix race for both teams was at least $600,000. That means sponsor money had to make up the $413,179 deficit.

So where’s the good news for race teams? It might be hard to find.

Cup teams are getting less money in 2015 as NASCAR has quietly increased the purses for the Xfinity and Truck series’, ESPN reported.

Chairman Brian France said last year that NASCAR would consider giving the two series’ a bigger portion of the new television deal that went into effect this year. That is what NASCAR has done, although it won't say by how much. It never announced the change, but it did confirm to ESPN that that was the case.

The bottom line is you need deep pockets to own a NASCAR team.

Weekend Racing: It will be the Sprint Cup cars and Camping World Trucks this weekend at the .52-mile Martinsville Speedway. The Xfinity teams have an off weekend.

Sat., Mar. 28; Truck Series race 3 of 23; Starting time: 2:30 pm ET; TV: FoxSports1.

Sun., Mar. 29; Sprint Cup Series race 6 of 36; Starting time: 1 pm ET; TV: FOX.

Racing Trivia Question: The first NASCAR race held at Martinsville Speedway was in 1949. Who was the winner?

Last Week’s Question: Which team did Kevin Harvick score his first Cup win with? He took over the Richard Childress car after Dale Earnhardt was killed at Daytona in 2001. He won in only his third career Cup start, edging out Jeff Gordon at Atlanta.

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