Elk Lake is once again taking both of its teams to the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Cross Country Championships after winning the boys’ championship and taking second in the girls’ race in Class A on its home course during Saturday’s District 2 Championships.
Sophomore Cody Oswald’s third-place finish led the way as the Warriors produced the biggest margin of victory among the six races held that day, beating out Holy Cross, 40-76.
The Lady Warriors finished second in the closest team race of the day, falling to Holy Cross, 29-34, in a matchup of two of the state’s top three teams from a year ago.
In addition to the Elk Lake’s teams, a half-dozen Susquehanna County individuals qualified to run in the PIAA Championships at Hershey Saturday.
Blue Ridge had three of those six qualifiers, including the two highest finishers among that group.
Travis Hickling placed sixth in Class A boys while freshman Karris Fazzi was 12th in Class A girls. Jessie Purdum was 14th and will join Fazzi in the girls’ race.
The other individual qualifiers were Montrose’s Zach Mead in Class AA boys and Forest City’s William Westgate and Mountain View’s Bobby Gray in Class A boys.
Elk Lake won the Class A boys’ title by putting four runners in the top 11, five in the top 17 and six in the top 21 of the 89-runner field.
“They’re getting better and better,” Elk Lake coach Will Squier said of his team. “The pack is tightening up. That’s the biggest thing.”
Oswald finished in 17:56, third behind Riverside’s Will Davies and Dunmore’s Matt Murray, the 2014 champion.
Hunter Bedell, Seth Owen and Brett Carney finished within six seconds of each other in ninth through 11th places. Hunter Watkins was 17th to complete the team score. Adam Parrett was 21st and Ty Moon 32nd.
“Hunter Watkins has moved up a lot,” Squier said. “He’s a lot closer to the front guys than he was at the start of the season.”
Mountain View finished third out of 12 full teams with 106 points.
Gray, a freshman, made the state meet by placing 13th. Joe Nally and Robert Belcher were 19th and 20th while Seth Fluck was 25th.
Forest City was fifth with 142 points, led by Westgate’s 12th-place finish.
Blue Ridge was seventh with 192 points.
Susquehanna entered just two runners and got Alex McHugh into the top half of the field in 41st place.
Elk Lake fell just short against Holy Cross after taking three of the top five spots and four of the top seven in the Class A girls’ race.
After Lexi Walsh and Mackenzie Greenfield finished 1-2 for Holy Cross, Elk Lake’s Katie Bennett, Keri Jones and Shyanne Bennett claimed the next three spots.
Justine Johns was seventh.
Lydia Ofalt, who was 17th, completed the team score. Andrea Rockefeller was 19th and Miranda Decker 24th in the 59-runner field.
Susquehanna, the only other full county team entered, was last out of seven teams with 183 points.
Elizabeth Delaney and Katie Woodruff finished 31st and 32nd for the Lady Sabers.
Blue Ridge, Forest City and Mountain View had individuals entered along with two other schools.
Fazzi’s was the best finish by any runner from those five schools.
Jennifer Korty, who ran among the leaders early, was 28th as Forest City’s only entry.
Mountain View’s best finish was Amanda Moran in 30th.
Montrose finished third out of 16 teams in the highly competitive Class AA boys’ race where the top two earned state spots.
Dallas won the title with 69 points, followed by Berwick with 97, Montrose with 128 and Scranton Prep with 152.
Mead claimed the last of the 10 individual state spots available by finishing 14th in 17:31, just one spot and two seconds ahead of teammate Owen Brewer.
Brandon was next for the Meteors, taking 19th in the 109-runner field.
The Montrose girls were 10th out of 13 teams in Class AA.
Abington Heights won with 45 points while Dallas also made the state meet with 66 points. Montrose had 265 points.
Freshman Georgia Smith led Montrose, placing 35th out of 94 runners.
WEEK IN REVIEW
Forest City’s Dylan O’Dell shot a second-round 79 to finish 10th among Class AA boys and earn a state medal at the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Individual Golf Championships October 26-27 at Heritage Hills Golf Resort in York.
O’Dell shot 82-79—161 to place 10th out of 36 players in the field. The top 10 earn medals.
O’Dell joined eighth-place finisher Tom Dzwonczyk from Holy Cross as the only medalists from District 2.
Montrose’s Austin Smith posted his second straight top-20 state finish, taking 15th with a 77-87—164. His opening round put Smith in fourth place at the midway point.
O’Dell followed up the individual tournament by shooting Forest City’s best score Thursday at the PIAA Team Golf Championships.
The Foresters finished tied for fifth in the state in Class AA boys with a 360.
Sewickley Academy led the six-team state field with a 333. New-Hope Solebury was second with 343, followed by Lancaster Catholic with 345 and Richland with 350.
Forest City tied Saegertown.
O’Dell shot 85 in the team tournament. Freshman Chris Bebla added an 87 while Adam Kowalewski shot 88 and Collin Ellis shot 100.
The top four scores on a five-player team made up the score. Mitchell Blake shot a 103.
In boys’ soccer, Mountain View and Montrose both two twice to reach the District 2 Class A semifinals.
Justin Rowe had a goal and two assists Thursday when Mountain View defeated Meyers, 3-1, in the quarterfinals.
The win put the Eagles in the semifinals against defending champion Wyoming Seminary in a game that was scheduled to be played Monday.
Mountain View shut out Old Forge, 5-0, in the opening round October 27.
Montrose posted a pair of 3-0 shutouts, beating Dunmore then Elk Lake Thursday. The Meteors earned a semifinal matchup that was scheduled for Monday against unbeaten, top-seed Lakeland.
Elk Lake had advanced through the first round with a 7-0 shutout of Mid Valley.
Meyers eliminated Blue Ridge, 4-1, in the first round.
In girls’ soccer, Montrose and Mountain View each bounced back from Lackawanna League Division 3 playoff losses to reach the District 2 Class A semifinals with wins.
Lakeland defeated Montrose, 2-0, October 26 in the Division 3 championship game.
The game was scoreless until Sam Calachino scored with 18.7 seconds left in the first half.
Montrose then defeated Holy Cross, 3-2, in the quarterfinals to advance into a rematch with Lakeland in the district semifinals, which were scheduled for Tuesday.
Mountain View, which had lost to Lakeland in a penalty kick shootout in the first game of a three-way playoff in the division, came back with a 2-0 win over Dunmore Friday. The Lady Eagles advanced into the semifinals at Meyers.
Elk Lake defeated Carbondale, 9-2, then lost to Meyers, 3-2, in overtime in the quarterfinals.
Forest City was shut out by Wyoming Seminary, 4-0, in the quarterfinals.
In high school football, both Montrose and Susquehanna suffered losses in Lackawanna Football Conference divisional games.
Montrose continued to struggle defensively while Susquehanna’s offensive woes continued.
Dunmore ran for 407 yards while clinching at least a tie for their fifth straight LFC Division 2 title with a 54-7 rout of Montrose Friday night.
The Bucks opened a 41-0 halftime lead and carried a 54-0 advantage into the fourth quarter.
Montrose has allowed 186 points in a four-game losing streak after winning four straight earlier in the season.
Joe Igo ran 17 yards in the fourth quarter for Montrose’s only touchdown.
Susquehanna has now been shut out in back-to-back games for the second time this season and has been held scoreless in five of its last eight games after Saturday’s 6-0, home-field loss to Carbondale in a Division 3 game.
Even more troublesome for the Sabers is that the offensive struggles also led to the only points allowed in another strong defensive effort.
Carbondale took over on a turnover at the Susquehanna 5 late in the half and got the game’s only points on a Dominic Gigliotti 3-yard run in the final minute of the second quarter.
In girls’ volleyball, Blue Ridge finished tied for second in the Lackawanna League.
The final standings were: Dunmore 18-0, Blue Ridge 15-3, Abington Heights 15-3, Montrose 12-6, Western Wayne 8-10, Elk Lake 6-12, Forest City 6-12, Mountain View 5-13, Susquehanna 4-14, Lackawanna Trail 1-17.
In professional hockey, Jean-Sebastien Day’s goal midway through the third period Wednesday lifted the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins to a 4-3 victory over the visiting Binghamton Senators in the first meeting of the season between the American Hockey League rivals.
Cole Schneider had scored back-to-back, second-period, power-play goals to lift Binghamton into a 3-3 tie.
The Penguins are off to a 7-1 start to lead the Atlantic Division and have the second-best record in the 30-team league.
COLLEGE CORNER
Megan Hinds became the first player in Geneva College history to win a conference championship in women’s tennis when she won the fifth singles title at the Presidents’ Athletic Conference Tournament in Erie October 23-24.
The junior from Montrose won six of eight sets in three tournament matches, outlasting Westminster’s Stephanie Homitz, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, in the final.
“This is so exciting for our program to finally have a PAC champion,” Geneva coach Mandee Craft said, according to a story on the school’s website. “I couldn’t pick a better player to do it. Megan played so hard and so well, carrying herself with the grace she always does.
“I’m so proud of her.”
Geneva went 6-7 in the regular season. Hinds was 12-1 with partner Sara Stoll in number-two doubles and went 9-4 in singles, playing primarily in the fourth spot.
WEEK IN REVIEW
The District 2 Class A girls’ volleyball championship Wednesday at North Pocono at 5 will include at least one Susquehanna County team.
Defending champion Blue Ridge took the top seed into Monday’s semifinal against Mountain View. Elk Lake was scheduled to face MMI Prep in the other semifinal.
In boys’ soccer, the District 2 Class A final is scheduled for Wednesday.
Montrose and Mountain View were playing in separate semifinal games Monday, trying to get to the final.
In girls’ soccer, the District 2 Class A final is scheduled for Thursday.
Montrose and Mountain were playing in separate semifinals Tuesday.
In high school football, Montrose and Susquehanna will each try to avoid winless seasons in LFC divisional play.
The degree of difficulty, however, varies drastically.
Montrose (0-4 in the division and 4-5 overall) is home against Honesdale, a team with which it shares last place in Division 2. Honesdale is 0-4 and 2-7.
Susquehanna (0-4, 2-7) is at Old Forge, which has already clinched at least a tie and is seeking to secure its fifth straight outright Division 3 title. The Blue Devils are 4-0 and 8-1.
Our high school football predictions last week were 10-1 (90.9 percent), bringing our season record to 80-26 (75.5).
This week’s predictions, with home teams in CAPS: MONTROSE 31, Honesdale 24 … OLD FORGE 42, Susquehanna 0 … DUNMORE 25, Riverside 21 … Lakeland 33, WESTERN WAYNE 9 … MID VALLEY 15, Carbondale 9 … DELAWARE VALLEY 19, Wallenpaupack 15 … Scranton Prep 33, WEST SCRANTON 6 … VALLEY VIEW 27, North Pocono 12 … ABINGTON HEIGHTS 10, Scranton 8 … Lackawanna Trail 31, HOLY CROSS 7.
In cross country, the PIAA Championships start at the Hershey Parkview Course with the Class A girls’ race Saturday morning at 9:30.
The Class A boys run at 11:45 a.m. and the Class AA boys run at 12:30 p.m.
Elk Lake’s girls were second the boys were fourth last year.
Katie Bennett, who was 10th, and Johns, who was 17th, are returning medalists.
The top 25 individuals in each race earn state medals.
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.
