Lackawanna League cross country season opens Wednesday and the league gets right into what should be some of its most important meets of the year.

Elk Lake, which went 16-3 a year ago to finish fourth in the 20-team girls’ league, will run against the top two teams in the first meet of the year.

The Lady Warriors will face defending champion Scranton Prep (19-0) and Holy Cross (18-1) in a meet hosted by Holy Cross.

Montrose and Blue Ridge will also each run against Scranton Prep and Holy Cross. In the league’s cluster meet format, Montrose, Blue Ridge and Elk Lake run together each week, but compete against each other just once.

The Montrose boys’ team, which went 20-0 to win the 21-team league last season, faces Scranton Prep (15-5) and Holy Cross (13-7). Elk Lake (17-3) also has important meets with those two teams.

Mountain View and Susquehanna also run together each week. They will face Abington Heights, North Pocono and Valley View in a meet at Lackawanna Trail, the other team in the cluster with the Eagles and Sabers.

Forest City hosts Mid Valley, Scranton and West Scranton. The Foresters’ running partners each week are Carbondale, Honesdale and Western Wayne.

WEEK IN REVIEW

The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders landed two major postseason International League awards when outfielder Ben Gamel was named Most Valuable Player and Al Pedrique was selected as Manager of the Year.

The RailRiders also grabbed four of the league’s all-star positions with Gamel and Aaron Judge in the outfield, Gary Sanchez at catcher and Donovan Solano at second base.

Gamel was the third player in the franchise history to be named MVP. Shane Victorino from the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons was honored in 2005 and Shelley Duncan from the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees was picked in 2009.

The award came a year after Gamel was named IL Rookie of the Year. Before the week was over, however, Gamel was traded by the parent New York Yankees to the Seattle Mariners.

At the time of the announcement, Gamel led the league with 78 runs scored and was sixth in batting average at .309. He also had 26 doubles, 19 stolen bases and 15 RBI.

Sanchez hit .282 with 21 doubles, 10 homers and 51 RBI in 71 games with the RailRiders.

Judge had 19 homers and 65 RBI before being promoted to the Yankees Aug. 13.

Solano leads the IL with 151 hits and ranks fifth with a .311 batting average.

The RailRiders clinched a playoff berth Aug. 28 when they defeated the Rochester Red Wings, 3-1.

RailRiders reliever Jonathan Holder was named IL Pitcher of the Week for the period ending Aug. 28.

Holder struck out 16 in 6 innings while posting saves in 2 of his 3 appearances.

LOOKING BACK

Montrose’s Brianna Baker shot an 87 at Scranton Municipal Golf Course Aug. 23 to finish fifth individually at the Jackman Memorial Girls’ Golf Tournament.

Baker finished five strokes out of first.

Emily Hare finished tied for 12th with 100 to help the Lady Meteors shoot 403 and place third out of five teams.

Scranton Prep won with a 351.

LOOKING AHEAD

Old Forge is at Montrose Friday night and Riverside is at Susquehanna Saturday afternoon in Lackawanna Football Conference Division 3 games.

The Meteors enter the game 0-1 in the division. The Sabers are 1-0.

Both teams had non-league games scheduled for the second week of the season.

Predictions for the third weekend LFC games were made before the results of the second week’s games were available, because of early holiday weekend deadlines for this edition.

Our predictions were 9-4 (69.2 percent) on the opening weekend.

This week’s picks, with the home team in CAPS: Riverside 20, SUSQUEHANNA 12 … Old Forge 27, MONTROSE 7 … Dunmore 25, LAKELAND 22 … LACKAWANNA TRAIL 42, Holy Cross 23 … MID VALLEY 36, Carbondale 23 … Scranton 35, VALLEY VIEW 19 … DELAWARE VALLEY 39, Wyoming Valley West 28 … Abington Heights 17, WEST SCRANTON 6 … North Pocono 24, WALLENPAUPACK 6 … Tunkhannock 29, HONESDALE 17 … Northwest 22, WESTERN WAYNE 16.

In girls’ soccer, the Lackawanna League opens Wednesday.

The schedule includes Forest City at Dunmore, Mountain View at Holy Cross, Elk Lake at Mid Valley and Montrose at Western Wayne.

In girls’ volleyball, Lackawanna League openers are scheduled for Wednesday.

Among the opening matches are Abington Heights at Elk Lake, Montrose at Blue Ridge, Western Wayne at Forest City and Mountain View at Susquehanna.

EDITOR’S NOTE

Weekend events, including staff coverage of the Holy Redeemer at Susquehanna football game, were not available for this edition because of the holiday printing schedule.

Those events will be included in an expanded sports report in the next edition of the County Transcript.

TOM ROBINSON writes a weekly local sports column for the Susquehanna County Transcript. He can be reached online at RobbyTR@aol.com.

HANDRICK IS IN YOUTH MOVEMENT

Rick Hendrick apparently believes youth is the key to his teams' future.

The majority of Hendrick’s current drivers are getting old. Jeff Gordon retired at the end of last season, though he filled in for Dale Earnhardt Jr., suffering from concussion-like symptoms. Earnhardt and Hendrick teammate Jimmie Johnson are both in their 40s.

Last year they tabbed young Chase Elliott to drive the No. 24 Chevrolet after Jeff Gordon retired.

William Byron at Pocono (Furnished by NASCAR)

This past week they announced the signing of 18-year-old William Byron.

Hendrick said he’s made more than a few miss-assessments with young drivers, but he’s certain this was the right guy at the right time.

“Trust me, I have been a tremendous failure at driver development. One year we wrecked 50-some (vehicles), and that was enough for me,” Hendrick said. “But none of those (prospects) had the experience or the success that William has.”

In 2017, Byron will drive for JR Motorsports in NASCAR’s Xfinity Series while continuing his education at Liberty University.

“It’s almost like the water boy for a football team that ends up being the starting quarterback,” Hendrick continued. “Watching him at JRM and knowing him, I have been amazed at what he has accomplished.”

Byron actually didn’t come to Hendrick's attention as someone he quickly needed to get under contract until this year. With only one NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race under his belt heading into the 2016 season, Kyle Busch Motorsports took a gamble on the 18-year-old Charlotte, N.C., native. Four races into the season and five into his truck series career, he snared his first victory. Three races later, this time at Texas, he claimed his second. It was the beginning of a victory binge for Byron who emerged victorious in four of the next seven races. Now, he has a chance at the truck championship.

“He reminds me a lot of Jeff Gordon,” Hendrick said. “He has won in everything he’s ever gotten into. I think everyone is looking for that next superstar. If you’re not willing to invest in the future, you’re going to be in a bind when the time comes. If you don’t get them young, someone else will.

“I watched the restarts at Pocono and I was glad I had reached out. He’s like Chase (Elliott), he has the whole package. William has nothing to do at all with Dale (Earnhardt Jr., who’s recovering from concussion issues); William has all to do with our future.”

For Byron, signing the contract is an “incredible opportunity”.

“Meeting Mr. Hendrick for the first time a couple of years ago at JRM set the goal for me to compete for him and race for JRM in the future in Xfinity,” said Byron. “To finally have that opportunity and for things to come together the way they have is really incredible. I’m just really impressed and thankful at Mr. Hendrick investing in me.”

Last year, Byron drove for two Mooresville, N.C.-based teams. He captured the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East championship for HScott Motorsports and competed for JR Motorsports in the late model ranks. L.W. Miller, who oversees JR Motorsports’ late model program, has described Byron as a student of the sport.

Byron’s rise to racing success is unique. He doesn’t come from a racing family, but his father realized his son’s passion for the sport when at age eight he begged him to take him to Martinsville (Va.) Speedway for a race.

Byron claimed the Legend Car Young Lions Division national championship, winning 33 races. Also in 2013, he won the Thursday Thunder Young Lions Championship at Atlanta Motor Speedway and the Young Lions Division Legends All-Star race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. In addition to Byron’s 33 victories in 69 races that year, he recorded 59 top-five and 64 top-10 finishes.

In 2014, Byron competed in the Legends Pro division and claimed the Charlotte Winter Heat Series championship. He also swept the six races that comprised the Pro Legends Winter Nationals at Auburndale, Fla., to claim that title.

Byron moved into the late model ranks while he continued to race Legend cars. Signing with JR Motorsports in January 2014, he produced a season that included 15 top-five finishes in 30 starts, seven pole positions, a second-place finish in Hickory Motor Speedway’s late model standings, and the North Carolina Rookie of the Year award in NASCAR’s Whelen All-American Series.

BUESCHER HOPES TO MAKE CHASE

A few weeks ago Chris Buescher didn't think he had a chance of making this year's Sprint Cup Chase. But after a win at Pocono, and a fifth-place finish at Bristol, he now sits 13 points ahead of David Ragan and 30th in points.

Note: According to the Chase rules, any driver that wins a race and finishes 30th or higher in points will be in the Chase.

“Winning at Pocono was really something, but being able to get a top-5 at Bristol was great,” said Buescher. Bristol was a pretty big day for us. We've had really strong days at the track. We've had a lot of bad luck.

“Obviously at Pocono we had some really good luck. It's been a roller coaster ride of a season, and because of that, we're having a talk about racing for that top-30 place in points. And I know everybody can say the same thing. Everybody can pick out a handful of races and say if it weren't for those they'd be in a lot different situation, and I guess I'm focused on what ours were.

“But nonetheless, where we are right now, our last several months we've been showing up with a lot of speed. We've had some races this year that we've been really good, and some of the racetracks that we're going to go to in the Chase, some of the mile-and-a-half stuff has been really good for us, the worn-out racetrack, the older asphalt, Atlanta, Fontana, Darlington is my favorite track. It's not in the Chase, so we'll see what plays out there. But I think it'll be good to help get us in the Chase a little bit more comfortably.

“You know, from my standpoint and Front Row Motorsports has been working extremely hard, and we've been sharing all we can to try and find speed each and every weekend.

“Bristol was good for us in the spring. We had really good speed here, and I was happy with that. They one-upped themselves. They came here with an even better piece, and we stayed out of the accidents. We played it smart today, ran against the fence but with a buffer to make sure we didn't get up in the marbles, didn't cut a tire down, didn't push sheet metal in on a tire. Anything that could go wrong we avoided other than me sliding a little bit, a little bit close to the inside wall on a pit stop.

“For the most part, a mistake free day that led to a really good run, but we had the speed to be able to pull it off with it. I mean, we were able to move forward every restart, and that was a lot of fun.

“As we look at the rest of the year, I mean, it's not just to the Chase, we've got to work all the way through Homestead to keep improving to make sure that we're in a good spot to try and win championships, win more races, and definitely be ready for next year to give it everything we've got to be more competitive from the very start of the season.”