ARCHBALD – Elk Lake’s Bailey Newhart and Montrose’s Austin Smith were recognized among the top players in District 2 and also were among the Susquehanna County senior basketball players who contributed to Lackawanna League All-Star Game wins.
Newhart was a first-team choice and Smith a second-team selection on the NPFSports.com All-District 2 Small School boys basketball all-star team.
Elk Lake won a Lackawanna League Division 4 title and reached both the District 2 championship game and state tournament in Class AA with Newhart leading the way.
Smith, the Lackawanna Division 4 Player of the Year as a junior, led Montrose to a second-place finish this season.
Both were part of the Red team that defeated the Blue, 126-122, March 22 at Valley View High School.
Elk Lake’s John Warnero coached the Red team, which included Newhart, Seth Tewksbury and Hunter Watkins from the Warriors, Ty Herbert and Austin Harper from Blue Ridge, Adam Kowalewski from Forest City and Smith.
The Red also included players from Honesdale, Lakeland, Wallenpaupack, Mid Valley and Carbondale.
Honesdale’s Ian Langendoerfer scored a game-high 20 points and Lakeland’s Tony Harding was named team Most Valuable Player after scoring 10 of his 15 points in the last 3 ½ minutes.
County players were significant contributors to the win.
Kowalewski was the third-leading scorer with 14 points. Newhart was next with 13. Smith and Tewksbury joined Wallenpaupack’s James Gentes with 12.
Watkins added six points while Herbert and Harper had four each.
The Red led almost the entire game.
Kowalewski had seven points in the final 1:45 of the first quarter as part of an 11-4 run that gave the Red a 30-19 lead.
After the Red took a 59-51 halftime lead, Smith went 3-for-3 on 3-pointers in the first 3:15 of the second half, but Trainor matched his nine points to help keep the Blue close.
The Blue scored the last seven points of the third quarter to get within 87-85.
Newhart scored nine points in the first 2:48 of the fourth quarter, giving the Red leads of as many as nine early in the fourth before the game got close down the stretch.
The Blue took leads of 107-106 and 109-108 midway through the fourth.
Harding had seven straight points in a 9-0 streak that helped the Red come out on top.
Smith matched Scranton Prep’s Pat Cosgrove, who scored 16 points for the Blue, with game-highs of four 3-pointers.
Old Forge’s Nick Pelosi won the pregame 3-Point Shooting Contest.
Coach Ken Bianchi and three of his Abington Heights players were part of the Blue team with players from Scranton Prep, Scranton, Riverside, Old Forge, Dunmore, Holy Cross, North Pocono and Valley View.
Billy Trainor from Holy Cross led the team with 17 points while Jonathon Williams from Dunmore, who added eight points, was named team MVP.
John Duffy, who coached Forest City to the Lackawanna League Division 4 title in his first season with the team, guided the Blue to a 65-54 victory over the Red at Forest City’s Julius Prezelski Gymnasium.
The Blue team featured players from Divisions 3 and 4, the Class AA and A schools in the Lackawanna.
Susquehanna’s D.J. Decker and Gabby Cina, Elk Lake’s Darci Warner and Forest City’s Anna Congdon played for the Blue.
Decker hit a pair of 3-pointers while scoring 11 points, second on the winning team behind Division I recruit Kayla Agentowicz, who had 15 points and eight rebounds to earn team MVP honors.
Warner had four points, Congdon three and Cina one.
Deanna Klingman from Division 1 champion Abington Heights coached the Red team, which consisted of players from Divisions 1 and 2, the Class AAAA and AAA schools.
Valley View’s Griffin Jones scored 11 points and was named Red team MVP.
Players from the Red won both pregame shooting contests.
Scranton Prep’s Jillian Paulus won the 3-point contest and North Pocono’s Brianna Maglio won the free throw shooting.
WEEK IN REVIEW
The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins swept an American Hockey League home-and-home series with the Binghamton Senators, winning 5-0 at home Wednesday, then 3-2 in overtime Friday night in Binghamton.
Dominik Simon scored two power-play goals and Tristan Jarry had a 20-save shutout in the first meeting.
Tom Kostopoulos scored two power-play goals in regulation, then Kael Mouillierat had the overtime game-winner Friday.
COLLEGE CORNER
Anthony Bartok, a junior pitcher from Montrose, through 1 2/3 scoreless innings for Albright College March 22 in a 7-6 loss at the University of Scranton.
Bartok has a 2.70 earned run average in 3 1/3 innings over three games. He has allowed four hits and four walks while striking out four.
THE WEEK AHEAD
The Lackawanna League softball season is scheduled to get started Monday, April 4 with defending Division 4 champion Elk Lake hosting Lackawanna Trail, one of the teams that tied for second place last season.
The other openers are defending District 2 Class A champion Mountain View at Susquehanna and Forest City at Montrose.
In high school baseball, Montrose opens at home against Forest City.
Montrose is the defending Lackawanna League Division 4 and District 2 Class AA champion. Forest City finished third in the division and played in the District 2 Class A championship game.
The other openers have Mountain View at Susquehanna and Lackawanna Trail at Elk Lake.
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 IS SEVENTH IN ALL-TIME WINS
Jimmie Johnson
Jimmie Johnson's win last week in California was his 77th time to visit NASCAR's victory lane, and the win moved him into seventh place in career wins ahead of Dale Earnhardt Sr.
The big question now is how many more wins can he pull off?
“There are a couple 'ifs' in there that are pretty big,” said Johnson. “If I can keep winning like this, how long I can do it? I feel like physically and mentally I'm the best that I've ever been in my career. I'm in a great space and really enjoying going to the race shop, going to the racetrack, working with my team.
“So I'm in the space I want to be in, which tells me it makes me want to stick around and do this for a lot of years.
“There's no guarantees about when you're going to win and have success. I've been very, very fortunate to win 77 of these things, which blows my mind on its own. It's easy to look at trends and say we win X a year, but at some point that stops, that stops for everybody. I don't know when that point is for me. I certainly hope it's not soon. I would love to get to Jeff (Gordon). But you never know.
“It's important for me to handle this with class, with respect, with honor for what I've done. The fact that I tied Dale with the win in Atlanta, where we are now, I know there's some more legends just ahead of me in the sport. I look forward to getting a chance to get up there and honor them as well and join them with the amount of wins.”
Just how far up the ladder can Johnson climb, realistically?
At age 40, Johnson now has 77 career wins. The next three driving records he will face are held by Cale Yarborough (83), and Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip, who are tied with 84 victories.
If Johnson keeps winning at this pace (4.8 victories per season), Jeff Gordon’s 93 wins should be within reach. Johnson won five races last year, four the year before that and six the year before that. And now he already has two in the first five weeks of 2016.
Can he catch Jeff Gordon?
“I'd rather worry about the next race,” continued Johnson. “If you start shooting goals like that, you can't do it. The thing you have to do, from my standpoint, is we have to worry about going to Martinsville and trying to win that race first. We have to worry about practicing well, qualifying well, winning that race. Then we have to do the same thing going to Martinsville, Texas, then so on and so forth throughout the rest of the season.
“I don't put the cart before the horse, you guys know that, so we focus forward, and handle each race as they happen.”
DANICA AND KYLE BUSCH FINED
Kyle Busch and Danica Patrick were penalized by NASCAR for behavioral infractions during last weekend's Sprint Cup and Xfinity Series races at Auto Club Speedway.
Busch was fined $10,000 for not fulfilling media obligations, while Patrick was fined $20,000 for walking toward the racing surface while on-track activity was taking place. Both drivers were also put on probation: Busch for Xfinity races through April 27, Patrick for the next four Sprint Cup races.
Danica Patrick, who was fined $20,000 and placed on NASCAR probation through the completion of the next four Cup Races. The fine was a result of her actions after a crash during Sunday’s race.
On lap 120 during Sunday's California race Patrick was running 19th exiting turn four and was running low along the frontstretch when she moved in front of the No. 5 Chevy being driven by Kasey Kahne. The two made contact and Patrick’s Chevy was turned headlong into the wall. The car went airborne before coming to a stop low on the track. Patrick exited her car and walked back towards the track gesturing at Kahne as he passed by.
NASCAR has issued a rule prohibiting a driver from such actions starting in 2014 after driver Tony Stewart hit a driver during a non-NASCAR race after the driver walked on the track to confront Stewart.
Reigning Sprint Cup champion Kyle Busch was fined $10,000 and placed on NASCAR probation for the next four NASCAR Championship Points Races through April 27. Busch’s deal occurred at the end of the NASCAR Xfinity Series race on Saturday at Auto Club Speedway. Busch had dominated the race only to run out of fuel, then blew a tire on the last lap; still finishing second despite the issues. Busch criticized NASCAR for not calling a caution and also did not fulfill his post-race media obligations.
FRANCE TALKS ABOUT RACING AND CAR MAKERS
Last week Brian France talked to Dave Moody of SiriusXM radio, proclaiming that after two photo finishes and lots of side-by-side racing, the sport is off to a really good start.
“It's not a situation where we're willing to say everything is perfect because we're always searching for terrific things on the race track,” said France. “The low downforce [package], in combination with Goodyear producing a really good tire to match up to that, has given the drivers more of what they want and they're putting on one heck of a race.”
The 2016 season opened with Denny Hamlin capturing the Daytona 500 by .010 seconds over Martin Truex Jr. That finish was followed by a race at Atlanta Motor Speedway - the first with the new lower downforce aero package - that saw a record number of green flag passes for the lead (44). And last Sunday in Phoenix, Kevin Harvick edged Carl Edwards to the finish line by the identical Daytona margin of victory of .010 seconds. But it was the end-of-race, sheet-metal crushing aggression displayed by both Harvick and Edwards at the end of the race that most impressed France.
“You've heard me say many, many times, that's classic NASCAR racing when that happens,” France said of the contact made between Harvick and Edwards at the close of the Phoenix race. “But it's interesting to note that not all the drivers that we have, present or past, would have made the moves that Carl Edwards tried to do to get around Harvick. Harvick did a great job. They both did a great job. But that's classic NASCAR. We expect that.”
During the interview, France also touched on the potential of new manufacturers entering the sport, joining the current stable of Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota.
“There is some interest, and by a couple of different manufacturers and we would be open to that in the right conditions,” France said. “I think a lot of the car companies are understandably looking at the terrific job that Toyota has done by partnering with NASCAR and the success and all the things that comes along with that. They've been an incredible success story for a car manufacturer looking to come into a sport that's very difficult to come in, compete and win every weekend. But there's an interest.”
Top-20 Sprint Cup Points Leaders after 5 of 33: 1. Harvick-195, 2. Johnson-184, 3. Edwards-171, 4. Hamlin-171, 5. Kyle Busch-170, 6. Logano-165, 7. Kurt Busch-148, 8. Earnhardt-145, 9. Keselowski-142, 10. A. Dillon-139, 11. Truex-127, 12. McMurray-125, 13. Almirola-120, 14. Stenhouse-119, 15. Kenseth-113, 16. Elliott-110, 17. Blaney-110, 18. Kahne-109, 19. Allmendinger-108, 20. Ryan Newman-95.
Weekend Racing: The Truck and Cup teams are at the smallest track on the circuit, the .52-mile Martinsville Speedway. The Xfinity Series does not race again until April 8.
Sat., Apr. 2; Truck Series race 3 of 23; Starting time: 2:30 pm ET; TV: Foxsports1.
Sun., Apr. 3; Sprint Cup Series race 6 of 36; Starting time: 1 pm ET; TV: Foxsports1.
Racing Trivia Question: Which is the oldest track on the NASCAR circuit?
Last Week's Question. How many sprint Cup teams does Roger Penske operate. Answer. He had two of his own, the No 2 driven by Brad Keselowski and the No. 22 of Joey Logano, but he partially sponsors the Wood Bros. No. 21 driven by Ryan Blaney.
You may contact the Racing Reporter by e-mail at: hodges@race500.com.
