Forest City area golfers Sebastian Cimoch and Dylan O’Dell finished first and tied for third July 25-26 when the Anthracite Golf Association Lawler Junior Tour held its Tournament of Champions.
Cimoch, who lives in the Forest City School District and attends Scranton Prep where he is about to enter his senior year, shot a 74 at Fox Hill Country Club to open a three-shot lead at the midway point in the tournament. He shot 80 the second day at Huntsville Golf Club, then won a sudden-death playoff with Hawley’s Alex Pillar on the first hole after they tied for first.
The win gave Cimoch the Art Wall Jr. Trophy.
O’Dell, a Forest City graduate who plans to play at Lackawanna College in the fall, was one of four players to tie for third, five shots back.
Cimoch and O’Dell shot 74s to share first place at Elkview Country Club in the last event prior to the Tournament of Champions.
Alexandra Fitzsimmons, another Forest City golfer, won the girls title at the event before that, shooting a 95 at Elmhurst Country Club.
ROAD TO RIO
Kat Sharkey, left, a Wyoming Seminary and Princeton graduate from Moosic, will be playing for the United States in women's field hockey at the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games beginning this week.
MANHEIM – District 2 of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association will be represented by three players, including one alternate, in women’s field hockey at the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games.
Kelsey Kolojejchick and Kat Sharkey, who led Wyoming Seminary to a state championship as high school teammates, are on the active roster. Paige Selenski, a 2012 Olympian who played at Dallas, is an alternate.
Pennsylvania is the strongest state in the nation in field hockey with 11 of the 18 players on the U.S. roster, including the two alternates. District 2 has often stacked up as the best conference within the state.
Wyoming Valley Conference members Crestwood, Wyoming Seminary, Lake-Lehman, Wyoming Valley West, Lackawanna Trail and Delaware Valley are all past state champions.
Since Kolojejchick, Sharkey and Selenski played in the district, Montrose has dropped field hockey. Sources said last week that Elk Lake, the last Susquehanna County school with the sport, is also in the process of dropping field hockey even though it had been included on the WVC schedule for this fall.
The Wilkes-Barre area, however, remains a field hockey hotbed.
Kolojejchick, a midfielder and forward, is from Larksville. Sharkey, a forward, is from Moosic. Selenski is from Shavertown.
The United States finished its preparation for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics July 26 at its training headquarters, the Spooky Nook Sports Complex in Lancaster County.
Kolojejchick and Selenski scored goals in a 5-0 victory over Canada in the final game of the Rio Send-Off Series.
The series also included two games with India in which the United States split. Kolojejchick and Sharkey had goals in those games.
Kolojejchick said she thought the team was playing well as it got ready to leave for Brazil later last week.
“I think it was a good confidence boost, being our last game at home and our last game before we go to Rio,” Kolojejchick said. “I’m ready proud.
“We’ve been really tired from going through a rough training block, so to be able to produce that performance makes me excited that we can push through a lot and still manage to play well.”
Selenski was in danger of having her career come to an end after a hamstring injury that led to surgery late in 2015 to reattach a tendon to her pelvic bone.
“There were times in the rehab process when I thought I would never play again,” said Selenski, who not only scored once, but also created two more great scoring chances late in what could ultimate prove to be her final international game. “I do feel good.
“It took a while to feel like myself out there again.”
Regardless of whether she is needed in Brazil – she will travel with the team, but can only replace an injured player who is then made inactive for the rest of the tournament – Selenski will face a decision of whether to keep moving forward. After such a serious injury, it won’t be an easy decision.
“I’m only 26,” she said. “I still haven’t peaked.”
Sharkey said the team left on a high note.
“I think it was real important for us to put together a good performance in our last showing before Rio,” she said.
The Olympics open Friday. The field hockey tournament begins Saturday.
The United States plays its first game Saturday against Argentina in a meeting of the top two American teams.
TOM ROBINSON writes a weekly local sports column for the Susquehanna County Transcript. He can be reached online at RobbyTR@aol.com and followed on Twitter at @tomjrobinson.
KYLE BUSCH SWEEPS THE BRICKYARD
Kyle Busch Sweeps the Brickyard
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.--Kyle Busch had a perfect racing weekend.
He won both poles and races at Indianapolis to become the first driver in NASCAR history to accomplish the feat.
Busch led 149 laps in Sunday's 170-lap Sprint Cup win and all but one lap in Saturday's Xfinity race for a complete domination of both events.
“I never dreamed it would be like this,” said Busch. “We were fast and able to stay out front, but they don't come along like this very much.”
The awesome power of his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Toyota showed in the race's last six restarts, Three of them were green-white-checkered ones that extended the race from its regular length of 160 laps to 170 laps. Each time Busch was on the pole, and each time he pulled away from the other leaders as soon as the green flag was given.
“I really can't say enough about Kyle's performance today,” said his teammate and runner-up Matt Kenseth. “He was the car to beat all day. We had what I thought was a great car, but we couldn't measure up to his speed.”
Jimmie Johnson finished third, followed by Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson, Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano, Austin Dillon, and Paul Menard.
There were only three caution periods for either debris or minor accident during the first 149 laps. But there were four cautions after that, including three green-white-checkered ones .
The biggest wreck came on a lap 151 restart. Carl Edwards got a little squirrelly going into turn-2, and ran into Brad Keselowski. Both cars were unable to continue, but the other five or six involved were able to finish the race.
“I guess I didn't clean my tires off good before the restart,” said Edwards. “I made contact and got in a lot of trouble with a couple other cars. I apologize.”
On the next restart, Clint Bowyer and Ricky Stenhouse got together and spun into the infield.
Jeff Gordon left the track Sunday feeling a little disappointed, after his 13th place finish, while subbing for the ailing Dale Earnhardt Jr.
“It was challenging,” said Gordon. “I got my butt kicked on all those restarts. It took us a while to get our balance, but I'm looking forward to Pocono.”
Earnhardt Jr. was not at the race because he is suffering from what doctors believe is a concussion, and will not race again until he gets a medical clearance.
Top-16 Chase leaders after 20 of 26; 1. Harvick-671, 2. Keselowski-647, 3. Kurt Busch-627, 4. Logano-606, 5. Kyle Busch-601, 6. Edwards-593, 7. Truex-573, 8. Johnson-552, 9. Kenseth-545, 10. Hamlin-542, 11. Elliott-525, 12. A. Dillon-520, 13. Newman-507, 14. McMurray-496, 15. Larson-472, 16. Kahne-462.
KYLE BUSCH RUNS AWAY WITH INDY XFINITY RACE
Kyle Busch got his 83rd career series win at Indianapolis on Saturday.
The remaining top-10: 2. Kevin Harvick, 3. Paul Menard, 4. Kyle Larson, 5. Justin Allgaier, 6. Elliott Sadler, 7. Daniel Suarez, 8. Joey Logan o, 9. Ty Dillon, 10. Brandon Jones.
Top-10 leaders after 18 of 33: 1. Suarez-608, 2. Sadler-594, 3. T. Dillon-558, 4. Allgaier-542, 5. E. Jones-539, 6. Gaughan-535, 7. B. Jones-520, 8. Poole-519, 9. Wallace Jr.-486, 10. Reed-436.
KYLE LARSON IS TRUCK WINNER
Kyle Larson won last Wednesday night's Truck Series race at Eldora Speedway. Christopher Bell, Rico Abreu, Jake Griffin, Tyler Reddick, Cole Custer, Cameron Hayley, Daniel Hemric, Austin Self, and Matt Crafton rounded out the top-10.
Top-10 leaders after 11 of 23; 1. Byron-282, 2. Crafton-273, 3. Hemric-271, 4. Sauter-253, 5. Peters-252, 6. Bell-245, 7. Reddick-243, 8. Nemechek-232, 9. Kennedy-225, 10. Hayley-220.
NEW CUP SPONSOR IN 2017
NASCAR is in the process of selling its premier series entitlement sponsorship, it's most recognized asset. The expiring series entitlement sponsorship with Sprint started in 2004 with a ten year deal between Nextel and NASCAR. The sponsorship required a shift from Nextel Cup Series to Sprint Cup Series in 2008 and has remained as such ever since. The parties previously extended their arrangement through 2016.
Sprint was spending somewhere between $50 million and $75 million annually. A year ago, NASCAR purportedly was seeking a price of $100 million per year with a minimum commitment of ten years prior to Sprint deciding to remain as the series entitlement sponsor for one final season. It was reported that NASCAR believed it could fetch a guarantee of $1 billion. The fee would be split between annual rights fees and activation. Sources have recently disputed the veracity of reports indicating that NASCAR's next premier entitlement sponsor pays $100 million per year. It is much more likely that NASCAR receives an amount commensurate with what Sprint paid in its expiring deal.
[NASCAR Chief Sales Officer] O'Connell said that NASCAR is currently in serious talks with roughly a dozen companies within various categories and their time line is to narrow the list down to a few final contenders by the end of Summer. NASCAR Chief Marketing Officer Steve Phelps recently stated that talks are underway with eight to ten companies. O'Connell expects an announcement by the Fall, which would be a similar time line as to what took place when the Nationwide Series shifted to XFINITY.
O'Connell stopped short of saying exactly which companies they were negotiating with but he was adamant things were going well despite rumors to the contrary. It's expected he would paint a rosy picture but sources have confirmed some companies have actually been declined by NASCAR because it wasn't a good business decision.
There have also been rumors that, at least, one insurance company was interested in becoming the entitlement sponsor but after reviewing contracts with its teams and partners, it was determined a deal could hurt several teams and the investment wouldn't offset money lost from other sponsors that might end up being locked out of the sport, like Verizon was when Sprint came on-board. NASCAR doesn't want to have a sponsor that will hurt the financial strength of its race teams and track partners.
One issue that keeps coming up is the overall cost of the entitlement sponsorship, which appears to be confusing with regards to how much a company would pay to NASCAR and how much the activation by that company would cost. Early numbers hit the $1 billion mark but that was said to be inaccurate.
Whatever company comes on-board will pay a rights fee, plus an additional amount to help promote the sport, which won't go to NASCAR. In fact, the new entitlement sponsor will have to spend money with tracks for activation during race weekends, on advertising and marketing and then on other promotions that would boost fan interest in the sport and the sponsor's brand. That is separate from what NASCAR would receive but it would be included in an overall total value.
Weekend Racing: The Sprint and Truck teams will be at the 2.5-mile Pocono Raceway, while the Xfinity Series is at Iowa Speedway.
Sat., July 30, Truck Series race 12 of 23; Starting time: 1 pm ET; TV: Foxsports1.
Sat., July 30, Xfinity Series race 19 of 33; Starting time: 8 pm ET; TV: NBCSN.
Sun., July 31, Sprint Cup race 21 of 36; Starting time: 1:30 pm ET; TV: NBCSN.
Racing Trivia Question: How many Cup championships did Dale Jarrett win?
Last Week's Question? Who won the first NASCAR race at Indianapolis? Answer. Jeff Gordon in 1994.
You may contact the Racing Reporter by e-mail at: hodges@race500.com
