SCRANTON – Hunter Watkins and Tommy Milandri gave Elk Lake two of the three boys’ throwing titles May 5 at the Lackawanna Track Conference’s Bob Spagna Championship Meet.
Watkins won the javelin by 23-9 with a throw of 195-4.
Milandri won the shot put with 47-6.
Montrose’s Colin Mondi was the only other champion from Susquehanna County, winning the high jump by clearing 6-2.
The Meteors finished second in Class AA boys with 28 points.
Lakeland won with 67 points.
Mike Stewart, in the long jump, and Billy Hewes, in the 110 high hurdles, each finished second.
The 1600 relay team placed seventh.
Watkins, who also placed sixth in the 300 hurdles, and Milandri helped Elk Lake finish third of 11 teams with 24 points.
Hunter Bedell was eighth in the 800.
Mountain View was eighth in the team standings with eight points.
James Goodenough was fourth in the 400 and Joe Nally was sixth in the pole vault.
Blue Ridge was ninth with seven points.
Brett Hepler was fifth in the discus and the 400 relay team was sixth.
Lakeland outscored Holy Cross, 78 ½-60 ½, to win the Class AA girls’ title.
Blue Ridge was fifth of 10 teams with 23 points.
Lindsey Rupakus led the Raiders, taking second in the 300 hurdles, seventh in the 100 hurdles and running legs on the fifth-place 400 relay and eighth-place 1600 relay.
Laurren Whitney was fifth in the javelin while Isabella Cosmello (400) and Kim Klim (discus) placed seventh.
Madelyn Pasteka finished second in the high jump, helping Montrose take seventh with 11 points.
The 3200 relay team was seventh and Hannah Dieck was eighth in the triple jump.
Elk Lake was ninth with nine.
Mikaela Parrett was fifth in the 100 and part of the eighth-place 400 relay.
The 3200 relay team was fourth.
Emillee Miller was third in the shot put, scoring the six points that placed Mountain View 10th.
Katie Greene scored the only two points for Susquehanna by placing seventh in the shot put.
WEEK IN REVIEW
Elk Lake pounded out 17 hits Wednesday while defeating Blue Ridge, 15-3, in five innings to clinch the Lackawanna League Division 4 softball title.
The Lady Warriors have completed their division schedule with a 10-2 record.
Celia DeWitt had three hits and drove in three runs while Emily Kasson drove in four runs in the win.
In high school baseball, Montrose has clinched at least a tie for the Lackawanna League Division 4 title with the help of Friday’s 4-2 win at Mountain View.
Matt Benninger struck out 11 in six innings and went 3-for-3 at the plate. Chris Lee added two hits.
In boys’ volleyball, Mountain View finished second in the Lackawanna League.
The final standings were: Abington Heights 11-1, Mountain View 10-2, Western Wayne 9-3, Blue Ridge 5-7, Forest City 5-7, Lackawanna Trail 1-11, Elk Lake 1-11.
In boys’ tennis, both Montrose players were eliminated during the first round of the District 2 Class AA singles tournament Wednesday.
Caleb Hoal fell 6-1, 6-3 to Anthony DeLuca of Dallas, who went on to pull off two upsets and reach the semifinals.
Christopher Lewis lost, 6-1, 6-0, to fifth-seeded Luke Whitenight from Berwick.
In track and field, Max Brewer, Liam Mead and the 400-meter relay team all posted victories for Montrose to lead the Meteors to a third-place finish in Class AA boys May 5 at the Phil Tochelli Championship Meet for Lackawanna Track Conference junior high teams.
Brewer won the 3200 by almost 28 seconds in 11:12.33.
Mead led a 1-2-3 Susquehanna County finish in the 1600 in 5:19.37. Mountain View’s Nathan Salansky finished 1.55 seconds back and Susquehanna’s Alex McHugh was third.
The Montrose 400 relay team of Charles Rohan, Evan Snyder, Tyler Rebello and Brenan Gilhool finished in 50.01 seconds.
Montrose finished with 95 points, four behind second-place Carbondale.
Lakeland took the title with 126 points.
Snyder was second in the 400 and third in the triple jump.
Charles Rohan tied for second in the high jump and placed third in the 300 hurdles.
Colin Chidester, in the 110 high hurdles, and Gilhool, in the long jump, also finished second.
GIlhool, Rebello, Chidester and Rohan took fourth in the 1600 relay.
Tristan Megivern, Christian Good and Canyon Stone led the way as Susquehanna finished fifth out of 12 teams with 95 points.
Megivern won the triple jump with 35-11 ½.
Good was second in the shot put and third in the discus.
Stone was second in the discus and tied for third in the high jump.
Elk Lake’s Peyton Jones was second in the 3200.
Elk Lake and Mountain View were tied for seventh with 22 ½ points. Blue Ridge was 10th with 10 points.
Montrose was fifth in Class AA girls with 43 points.
Western Wayne outscored Lakeland, 198-127, for the title.
Susquehanna was seventh out of 12 teams with 19 points.
Mountain View was eighth with 13 points, Blue Ridge 10th with 10 and Elk Lake 12th with seven.
Krystal Hepler from Blue Ridge finished third in the shot put.
In professional hockey, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins returned home Saturday night and pulled out their first win of the second-round American Hockey League playoff series with the Manchester Monarchs, 2-1.
Tom Kostopoulos scored the game-winning goal and blocked a shot at the buzzer for the Penguins, who had dropped the first two games in New Hampshire.
The Penguins have been responsible for five of the 11 occasions when a team has rallied from a 2-0 deficit to win a best-of-seven Calder Cup playoff series since 2005.
The Penguins still trailed the series, 2-1, going into games Monday and Tuesday at home.
Matt Murray made 29 saves in the win.
Wednesday’s series opener went three overtimes before Manchester won, 4-3.
The Monarchs, the league’s highest-scoring team during the regular season, added a 5-2 win Thursday.
COLLEGE CORNER
Taylor Watkins, a freshman from Elk Lake, finished ninth in the women's javelin for East Stroudsburg May 2 when it hosted the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Track and Field Championships.
Watkins came up one place short of scoring team points. Her throw of 127-10 was ninth best of 18.
THE WEEK AHEAD
Mountain View hosts Nanticoke in a meeting of 10-2 teams in the District 2-11 Class AA boys’ volleyball subregional Wednesday at 2.
The winner advances to face either top-seeded Holy Redeemer or Southern Lehigh Tuesday, May 19 in the semifinals.
In boys’ tennis, the District 2 Class AA doubles tournament is scheduled to begin Wednesday at 9 a.m. at Kirby Park in Wilkes-Barre.
The four semifinalists advance to Thursday.
In high school baseball, the District 2 Class AA playoffs open Friday.
Montrose has a shot at the only first-round bye in the 15-team tournament. Mountain View is also in the field.
The Class AA quarterfinals are Tuesday, May 19.
Forest City has a chance to land the only bye in the Class A quarterfinals Monday, May 18. Blue Ridge, Elk Lake and Susquehanna are also part of the field.
In high school softball, the opening round of the District 2 Class AA playoffs is scheduled for Monday, May 18. Elk Lake, which has a shot at one of the two first-round byes, and Montrose are part of the field.
The Class A quarterfinals are Tuesday, May 19. Mountain View has a chance at one of the quarterfinal byes in the field, which also includes Blue Ridge, Forest City and Susquehanna.
In professional hockey, if the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins are able to extend the American Hockey League Calder Cup second-round playoff series with the Manchester Monarchs to six games, they will head back to New Hampshire.
Games Six and Seven are scheduled for Friday and Saturday night at 7 in Manchester.
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 KANSAS
Jimmie Johnson applies a win sticker to his car after winning the Kansas Cup race. Furnished by NASCAR.
Jimmie Johnson and his team used confidence and luck to win the rain-delayed Kansas Sprint Cup race, his third victory of the season.
“It just dawned on me: We've won two races, we're locked in the Chase, points don't matter. We're going for the win,” Johnson said. “It was just sort of a gut feeling, a split-second thing.”
Johnson, didn’t appear to have the fastest car, but managed to hold off Kevin Harvick over the final six laps to win by half-a-second.
Harvick appeared to be headed toward his third victory of the season as the laps wound down after he took the lead on a restart lap with 54 laps remaining in the 267-lap race. He had a lead of over one second with 14 laps to go and nobody appeared fast enough to run him down.
But then, the race’s last caution came out with 13 laps to go, after Ricky Stenhouse hit the outside wall.
Harvick pitted for two tires and a splash of fuel, while Johnson, Earnhardt, Kurt Busch and Jeff Gordon remained on the track.
On the restart, Harvick was lined up in the sixth spot. Within two laps, he had moved up to third, and from that point on, it was a three-car battle between Johnson, Earnhardt and Harvick.
“A few more laps I think the No. 4 (Harvick) would have had me,” continued Johnson. “He was awfully strong. Obviously being on right side tires would have been an advantage for him. We had just enough time to get to victory lane.”
Harvick said he wasn’t upset with the decision to pit late in the race.
“I’ve been on the other side of this deal where the cars aren’t running good and you don’t have a chance to win,” he said. “We won a championship on pit calls and tires and everything fell our way. We’ve had a lot of things go our way and we’ve had a lot of things work.”
The remaining top-10 finishers: 3. Dale Earnhardt, 4. Jeff Gordon, 5. Joey Logano, 6. Matt Kenseth, 7. Brad Keselowski, 8. Kurt Busch, 9. Martin Truex, 10. Ryan Newman.
The biggest loser was Martin Truex Jr. He was clearly the fastest on the track for most of the race, leading 95 laps.
His team felt they needed to bring him in for fuel during the final caution. On the restart, it became obvious they had made the wrong call, because he finished ninth.
“We should have either stayed out or took new tires,” Truex said. “We probably did the worst thing you could have done there with just staying out and getting gas only because we ended up being the last guy with no tires. Everybody else behind us had two and they ate us up on the restart.”
The race which started Saturday at 7:46 pm ET, had a two hour and fifteen minute rain delay and did not end until 12:20 am ET on Sunday morning.
Chase Grid Outlook after 11 of 26: 1. Johnson-389 (3 wins)-2. Harvick-437 (2), 3. Logano-375 (1), 4. Earnhardt-360 (1), 5. Keselowski-342 (1), 6. Kenseth-331 (1), 7. Hamlin-284 (1), 8. Truex-391, 9. McMurray-328, 10. Gordon-317, 11. Kahne-313, 12. Almirola-312, 13. Menard-306, 14. Newman-306, 15. Bowyer-272, 16. Patrick-270.
CRAFTON TAKES KANSAS TRUCK RACE
Matt Crafton won Friday night’s Kansas Truck race after the two leaders, Erik Jones and Daniel Suarez ran out of fuel four laps from the finish of the 167-lap race.
Crafton had stopped on lap 137 for a splash of fuel and inherited the lead after Jones and Suarez came up short.
Sprint Cup driver Ryan Newman was third, followed by Johnny Sauter, Timothy Peters, Cameron Hayley, Daniel Suarez, Justin Boston, Scott Lagasse, Mason Mingus, and Daniel Hemric.
Top-10 leaders after 4 of 23: 1. Crafton-175, 2. Reddick-158, 3. E. Jones-157, 4. Sauter-153, 5. Hayley-123, 6. Townley-122, 7. Peters-121, 8. Boston-114, 9. Black-112, 10. Gallagher-111.
GIBBS RACING GOING WITH YOUTH
Joe Gibbs Racing recruited Carl Edwards away from Roush-Fenway Racing prior to the start of the 2015 season in an effort to bolster their overall performance. So far Edwards has not won a race, and has not lived up to expectations.
But there is definitely hope for JGR, and it comes in the form of youth.
They have two promising up and coming drivers: Erik Jones and Daniel Suarez.
The 18-year-old Jones is a full-time driver in the Truck Series, who has been tabbed to drive three races in the No. 18 Toyota, while Kyle Busch remains out with injuries.
Jones continued to add to his racing qualifications by winning the pole for last week’s Kansas Truck race. He not only won the pole, but set a new track record.
During the race he led 151 laps of the 167-lap race, but ran out of fuel with four laps remaining, after his team miscalculated his truck’s fuel mileage.
In addition to the Truck Series, he has made eight starts in the Xfinity Series, with one win, five top-5s, and one pole.
“I’m pretty excited and grateful for the opportunity to drive the No. 18 M&M’s Toyota in the Sprint Cup Series,” said Jones. “We are going to manage our expectations and if we can go out and get a top-15 run and gain some experience, that would be a great day for us.”
If he can keep his momentum, it will mean added insurance for JGR’s future racing program.
Meanwhile their other young driver, 22-year-old Daniel Suárez, from Monterrey, Mexico currently competes in the NASCAR Xfinity Series full-time, while driving part-time in the Truck Series for Kyle Busch Motorsports. Previously he drove in the NASCAR Toyota Series in Mexico, and the K&N Pro Series East as a member of the Drive for Diversity program.
He is currently ninth in Xfinity points, with one top-5 and three top-10s.
Weekend Racing: The Sprint Cup and Trucks will be at the 1.5-mile Charlotte Motor Speedway, while the Xfinity Series travels to the seven-eighths-mile Newton, Iowa track. It will be regular points racing for the Xfinity and Trucks, while the two Cup races are non-points.
Fri., May 15; Sprint Showdown, a non-points Sprint Cup race; Starting time: 7 pm ET; TV: Foxsports1.
Fri., May 15; Truck Series race 5 of 23; Starting time: 8:30 pm ET; TV: Foxsports1.
Sat., May 16; Sprint All-Star non-points race; Starting time: 7 pm ET; TV: Foxsports1.
Sun., May 17; Xfinity Series race 10 of 33; Starting time: 2 pm ET; TV: Foxsports1.
Racing Trivia Question: How did the Darlington race, “Rebel 300”, acquire its name?
Last Week’s Question: Where is Martin Truex Jr.’s hometown? Answer. It is Mayetta, New Jersey.
You may contact the Racing Reporter at: www.hodges@race500.com
Matt Benninger
Matt Benninger did not allow a run in two games as a starting pitcher.
Benninger scored runs in five of his six games as a hitter.
For his efforts in helping Montrose go 6-0 in Division 4 of the Lackawanna League during April, Benninger has been selected as the Susquehanna County Transcript Athlete of the Month.
Benninger, a senior who is in his third year as a starter and fourth year on the varsity, is the clean-up hitter for the Meteors. He plays third base when he is not on the mound, where he has been the division’s most effective pitcher while helping Montrose clinch at least a share of the division title.
“He’s full of composure,” first-year Montrose coach Josh Winn said. “He’s a wonderful competitor. He never backs down from a challenge.
“One of our mottos is our best against their best. Matt’s never afraid to do that.
“He has good stuff. He mixes in a lot of different stuff. He has a terrific fastball and he throws four pitches that are all very good.”
Benninger’s pitching improved dramatically this season.
In April, he struck out 26 in 12 scoreless innings.
Benninger fanned 12 and gave up only a hit and two walks in five innings of a 16-0, six-inning win over Elk Lake in the April 13 division opener. He threw a five-hit shutout with 14 strikeouts and no walks during a 9-0 win over Forest City April 26.
The big strikeout numbers are a new development for Benninger, who has been playing baseball since Pony League.
“A lot of hard work went into this year,” Benninger said. “We put a lot of time and effort into my pitching and the coaches worked with me a lot.
“ … I’m able to locate my pitches better. I definitely feel like I’m able to the ball with a little more velocity than I have in the past couple of years.”
Benninger had hits in the last five games of the month. He batted .350 in April and scored nine runs in the six division games.
“We’ve grown a lot and become extremely close as a team,” Benninger said.
Benninger has enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps meaning his baseball career will end when the Meteors wrap up their season.
“It definitely makes me want to strive a lot harder for these last few games of my high school career,” Benninger said. “It has definitely added importance. I want to make sure I end my year on as good a note as a possibly can.”
Matt is the son of Kathy and David Benninger from Montrose.
