District 2 officials have set plans for boys’ tennis, track and field, lacrosse, boys’ volleyball, baseball and softball championships.

Boys’ tennis is the first to get started with team championships set to open Friday.

Montrose is winless in the Lackawanna League this season so it will not be part of the team tournament.

The Meteors will, however, be part of the District 2 Class AA singles and doubles tournaments.

Singles play is scheduled for May 7-8, followed by doubles May 14-15. The first day of each of those tournaments is at Kirby Park in Wilkes-Barre.

The Class AA Track and Field Championships are May 11 at Scranton Memorial Stadium, beginning at 3 p.m.

Lacrosse, which does not include any Susquehanna County schools, opens girls’ play May 11 and boys’ play May 12.

With the league schedules set to finish a week earlier than in the past, boys’ volleyball tournament play will be split over two weeks for the first time. All the county teams, including Lackawanna League leader Mountain View, are trying to gain spots in the Class AA tournament.

Quarterfinals will be May 13 at the sites of the top two seeds. The semifinals are May 19 and the finals are May 21.

Baseball, which has an open tournament for all interested teams, will begin May 15.

Lackawanna League Division 4 leader Montrose and Mountain View are among the 15 teams in the Class AA tournament that is scheduled for May 15, 19, 21 and 25.

Blue Ridge, Elk Lake, Forest City and Susquehanna are among the seven teams in Class A, which has games May 18, 20 and 25.

Softball also has an open tournament.

Elk Lake and Montrose are part of the 14 teams that can play in Class AA May 18, 20, 22 and 27.

Blue Ridge, Forest City, Mountain View and Susquehanna are part of the seven teams in Class A, which plays May 19, 21 and 26.

WEEK IN REVIEW

Brackney’s Paula Fitch finished in the top 10 of her age group during the running of the 119th annual Boston Marathon April 20.

Fitch, 65, finished eighth among the 91 women ages 65-69 who completed the race.

By completing the 26.2-mile run in 4:00:17, Fitch placed 18,938th overall out of a total of 26,610 finishers. A field of 27,165 started the race.

There were 923 finishers from Pennsylvania, the fifth-most from any state. Only Massachusetts, California, New York and Texas had more runners complete the race.

Brad Ruffo from Archbald led northeastern Pennsylvania runners, placing 385th in 2:42:40.

In high school track and field, the Montrose boys and Elk Lake girls clinched at least a share of the Lackawanna League Division 4 titles going into their meet at Elk Lake, which was scheduled for Monday.

The Montrose boys improved to 4-0 by beating Lackawanna Trail April 21 when the Elk Lake girls were beating Mountain View.

The Montrose boys then took fifth and the Blue Ridge girls were ninth out of 22 teams at the Lasagna Invitational Friday night in Wyalusing.

Billy Hewes led a 1-2 Montrose finish in the 300-meter hurdles in 41.72 seconds and also took second in the 110-meter high hurdles. Teammate Seven Shelp finished behind Hewes in the 300 hurdles.

Blue Ridge’s Brett Hepler took second in the discus, third in the javelin and fourth in the triple jump.

Mike Stewart added a second-place finish in the long jump, Colin Mondi was third in the high jump and the 1600 relay team was fourth to help Montrose score 51 points.

Lakeland won the boys’ title, 94 ½-76 ½, over Scranton Prep.

Blue Ridge tied for 14th with 22 points and Mountain View tied for 19th with three.

Laurren Whitney, in the javelin, and Lindsay Rupakus, in the 300 hurdles, finished third to lead the Blue Ridge girls.

Pittston Area outscored Lakeland, 94 ½-66, for the girls’ title.

Blue Ridge had 25 ½ points. Montrose was 11th with 20 ½ and Mountain View was 19th with two.

Emma Washo was fifth in the 3200 and anchored the third-place 3200 relay team to lead Montrose.

In boys’ volleyball, Mountain View suffered its first loss but remained in the Lackawanna League lead at 7-1.

The Eagles fell at Western Wayne, 25-12, 18-25, 25-23, 26-24.

In professional hockey, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins dominated two games at home to jump out to a 2-0 lead in their best-of-five, first-round series with the Syracuse Crunch in the American Hockey League’s Calder Cup Playoffs.

Kasperi Kapanen scored two goals Friday night when the Penguins won the opener, 5-1. Carter Rowney had a goal and two assists while Dominik Uher had a goal and an assist.

Matt Murray made 22 saves in the opener, then had a 27-save shutout in Saturday’s 4-0 victory.

COLLEGE CORNER

Cory Poepperling, a junior from Montrose, is a jumper and thrower on the Misericordia University men’s track and field team.

Poepperling was third in the long jump and eighth in the javelin at the Messiah Invitational earlier this month.

During the indoor season, Poepperling was a Mid Atlantic Conference all-academic team selection.

THE WEEK AHEAD

The 60th annual Jordan Relays are scheduled for Thursday at Scranton Memorial Stadium, beginning at 5:30 p.m.

Montrose is the three-time defending Class AA girls’ champion.

In the first 53 Jordan Relays, between 1955 and 2008, there were no Susquehanna County schools among the 154 team titles awarded. The last six Class AA girls’ and two of the Class AA boys’ titles since have been won by county teams. Blue Ridge broke through with the 2009 girls’ title followed by Elk Lake sweeping boys’ and girls’ the next two years and the Montrose girls winning the last three.

In professional hockey, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins are at the Syracuse Crunch Wednesday for the third game of their best-of-five Calder Cup Playoffs series.

If the Penguins are unable to wrap up the series Wednesday, Game Four would be Thursday in Syracuse. Game Five, if necessary, would be in Wilkes-Barre Saturday.

In professional baseball, the defending champion Binghamton Mets play a rematch of last season’s Eastern League playoff series when they host a four-game series of 6:35 p.m. games beginning Monday May 4 against the Portland SeaDogs.

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.

KURT BUSCH IS IN THE CHASE

Kurt Busch, winner at Richmond is in the Chase

RICHMOND, Vir. - Kurt Busch has made the 2015 Sprint Cup Chase.

Despite repeated wrecks, near wins in previous races, and a domestic dispute that saw him penalized a race by NASCAR, Busch’s win in Sunday’s Cup race insures him a spot in the 16-driver Chase.

“It’s an incredible feeling,” said Busch. “We’ve come so close, but were denied. It seems like we just kept pulling and pulling for this moment. We just had to reach way down deep and pull it out. Not just me, but the entire team.”

Busch led six times for 291 laps of the 400-lap race, the most laps in any one race of his career.

Polesitter Joey Logano, Busch, and Kevin Harvick were the early leaders. From lap 95, when Busch gained the lead from Logano, until the checkered flag, he was either leading the race, or no further back than third.

The real racing started on lap 349 after a caution. Busch was the leader, followed by Jimmie Johnson, and Busch’s teammate Kevin Harvick. All the lead cars had four fresh tires, and enough fuel to make it to the end of the race.

Busch stayed out front and survived four more cautions and restarts. The last restart was on lap 378. It was Busch, Jamie McMurray, Johnson, and Harvick in that order. On lap 382 Harvick got by Johnson for third. Three laps later, he passed McMurray for second.

At that point Busch had a 1.11-second lead. Harvick managed to cut the distance to .59-seconds, but that was as close as he got, and crossed the stripe .75-seconds back.

“That last set of tires sent us from second to about 13th or 14th,” said Harvick. “We made up a lot of ground at the end, but that’s all we could get out of them.”

Jimmie Johnson was third.

“We had a great race car on Friday,” said Johnson. “I don’t really know what happened. On long runs I was able to work my way up, but on short ones, we didn’t do as well.”

The remaining top-10 were: Jamie McMurray, Joey Logano, Kasey Kahne, Matt Kenseth, Jeff Gordon, Clint Bowyer, and Martin Truex.

Chase Elliott, who was making his second Cup Series start, was 16th.

The engine in Brad Keselowski’s No. 2 Ford went sour and he finished 17th.

Danica Patrick was involved in more bumping and shoving incidents than fleas on a junk-yard dog, finished 25th.

Tony Stewart, who finished 41st was involved in two separate accidents. The last one came on lap 359 when he got into the rear of Dale Earnhardt Jr’s. car. Stewart’s car was towed behind the wall, and he did not finish the race.

When asked about the incident, Earnhardt, who finished 14th said, “Why don’t you go ask him (Stewart).” He hit me in the left rear quarter panel. I was trying to clear another car and was as high as I could go.”

Stewart refused to speak to the media.

Top-16 Chase drivers: 1. Harvick-357, 2. Logano-324, 3. Truex-315, 4. Johnson-299, 5. Keselowski-283, 6. Kahne-275, 7. Kenseth-273, 8. Earnhardt-271, 9. McMurray-264, 10. Gordon-263, 11. Hamlin-245, 12. Almirola-250, 13. Menard-239, 14. Bowyer-235, 15. Newman-234, 16. Patrick-230. Note: Even though Kurt Busch is not listed in the top-16 drivers, he is locked into the Chase field because of his Richmond win. Drivers like Danica Patrick, Aric Almirola, Ryan Newman and the others that do not have a win, are not locked in. No matter where a drivers stands in points, a win puts them into the Chase.

HAMLIN REBOUNDS AT RICHMOND

Denny Hamlin, who had to remove himself from his car during the Bristol Sprint Cup race due to muscle spasms is O. K. and back in victory lane. He won Friday night’s 250-lap Xfinity Series race by nearly four seconds, ahead of Joey Logano.

He led three times for 248 laps. The only other two drivers to lead a lap were Brian Scott and Elliott Sadler.

“This was the 100th Xfinity win for a Toyota, and it was a big one,” said Hamlin. “This is a win for everyone, especially the team. I knew going into the race we had a strong car. All I had to do was drive and stay out of trouble.”

Runner-up Joey Logano never led a lap and was never able to challenge for the lead, pretty much summed up Hamlin’s performance.

“Now, I know what it feels like to be on the other end of a butt-whipping,” said Logano. “It’s not much fun from this side, but congrats to them. They deserved it, obviously.”

Regan Smith was third, followed by Erik Jones, Chase Elliott, Daniel Suarez, Brian Scott, Austin Dillon, Ty Dillon, and Landon Cassill.

A freak accident occurred early in the race on pit road involving the No. 62 car driven by Brendan Gaughan. A spark ignited some fuel that spilled while refueling the car, causing a fireball that engulfed the rear tire changer, Anthony O’Brien. It was quickly extinguished.

O’Brien and two other crew members were taken to a Richmond hospital as a precaution.

Top-10 leaders after 8 of 33: 1. T. Dillon-293, 2. Elliott-285, 3. C. Buescher-282, 4. Wallace-266, 5. Smith-252, 6. Gaughan-244, 7. Sadler-244, 8. Reed-243, 9. Scott-243, 10. Suarez-240.

KENNY WALLACE FILLS IN FOR BROTHER

Mike Wallace will be out of his No. 26 Xfinity Series Toyota for the next few weeks, while recovering from recent heart surgery.

Brother Kenny will substitute for him next week at Talladega Superspeedway.

The 56-year-old Wallace experienced heart pain last week and underwent triple bypass surgery, and is now recovering.

“This isn’t what the plan was,” Wallace said. “I felt a little chest pain last week so I went to the doctor and the next thing I know, I'm going in for surgery. My dad had heart surgery about 35 years ago, so I thought I was being proactive and taking all of the necessary precautions. This just goes to show that you never know and there are a lot of people walking around in the same situation.

“No matter how healthy we think we are, no one can be careful enough when it comes to our health. So everyone needs to go get checked out.”

Weekend Racing: The Cup and Xfinity series teams will be at the 2.66-mile Talladega Speedway, the longest track on the NASCAR circuit. The trucks do not race again until May 8.

Sat., May 2; Xfinity Series race 9 of 33; Starting time: 2 pm ET; TV: Foxsports1.

Sun., May 3; Sprint Cup Series race10 of 36; Starting time: 1 pm ET; TV: Fox.

Racing Trivia Question: Talladega Speedway was originally known as Alabama International Motor Speedway. What year did it open?

Last Week’s Question: What year did Tony Stewart break into the Sprint Cup ranks? Answer. His first Cup season was 1999. He had three wins and finished third in points.

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