Elk Lake came a tiebreaker away from winning a state championship and had to settle for second place in Class A girls Saturday in the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Cross Country Championships at the Parkview Course in Hershey.

Justine Johns led the way for the Lady Warriors, earning her fourth career state medal by finishing the 3.1-mile course in 19:57 for 18th place.

Montrose finished fifth in Class A boys and also had one of Susquehanna County's three individual medalists.

Owen Brewer led the Meteors, placing 13th.

District 2 champion Jennifer Korty from Forest City finished 23rd.

The top 25 in the state earned medals.

Elk Lake finished strong, catching St. Joseph's Catholic to equal its team score of 103 for the top five runners. St. Joseph's won the title because its sixth runner finished before the sixth runner from Elk Lake.

Sadie Bosscher was 28th, Keri Jones 29th, Shyanne Bennett 37th, Lydia Ofalt 79th, Lexi Hememway 154th and Andrea Rockefeller 188th for the Lady Warriors, who finished 11 points ahead of third-place Marion Center.

Brewer took 13th by finishing in 16:58.

District 2 champion Zach Mead missed out on a state medal by three places and 12 seconds, taking 28th in 17:22.

The rest of the Montrose team was: Brandon Curley 61st, Max Brewer 72nd, Liam Mead 84th, Jerome Washo 101st and Austin Doloway 133rd.

Elk Lake's Peyton Jones and Cody Oswald finished a second apart in 41st and 42nd places. Blue Ridge's Travis Hickling was 113th.

Montrose freshman Hannah Perkins missed out on a medal by less than a second while placing 27th in Class 2A girls. Teammate Georgia Smith was 112th.

DISTRICT CHAMPIONS

The Blue Ridge girls' volleyball team and Mountain View boys' soccer team won District 2 Class A titles.

Blue Ridge won its third straight title, beating MMI Prep, 25-12, 25-23, 27-25, Wednesday night at North Pocono.

Megan Houlihan had 7 kills, Kandace Smith had 16 digs and Alexa Stanley had 8 service points in the win.

Mountain View defeated host Elk Lake, 2-1.

All the goals were scored in the first half.

Zeke Cross scored first, then Nick Pellew gave the Eagles a 2-0 lead on an assist from Cooper Meagher.

Blake Chew scored for Elk Lake on an assist from Francisco Lopez.

Both teams advance to state tournament play.

EASTERN CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS

Jarred Mills and Kyle Donovan led Susquehanna to a 40-13 rout of Old Forge in the Eastern Conference Class A Championship game.

The Eastern Conference playoffs are for the top remaining teams that did not qualify for district or state playoffs.

Mills scored three touchdowns while Donovan passed for two and ran for one in the win.

The Sabers scored the last 34 points after trailing in the second quarter of a game that was tied at halftime.

By winning the last two games, Susquehanna finished 5-6.

Mills carried 16 times for 135 yards, including an 80-yard run to start the scoring and a 33-yard run in the fourth quarter. He caught a 40-yard pass from Donovan to give the Sabers their first two-touchdown lead, just 1:06 after Donovan had run a yard for the go-ahead score late in the third quarter.

On defense, Mills intercepted a pass and made seven tackles (one for a loss) while assisting on four others.

Donovan completed 7 of 19 passes for 159 yards. His other touchdown was a 27-yarder to Shaun Andersen to force the 13-13 halftime tie.

Adam Roe returned a fumble 21 yards for a touchdown with 30 seconds left to close scoring.

The Sabers made good use of the five turnovers they forced.

Donovan's go-ahead touchdown came after Chris Graf recovered a fumble at the 7.

The quick score that followed came one play after an Ian Townend fumble recovery.

Logan Conrad had the other interception.

Kyle Bayle, Sam Cosmello, Mills and Townend were all in on at least 10 tackles as the Sabers held Old Forge to 36 yards rushing on 30 carries.

WEEK IN REVIEW

Lakeland scored four goals off corner kicks to defeat visiting Elk Lake, 6-0, Thursday night in the District 2 Class A girls soccer championship games.

Both Montrose soccer teams reached the Class 2A semifinals before being eliminated October 31, one win away from state tournament appearances.

The girls lost, 1-0, in overtime to then unbeaten Dunmore.

The boys fell, 3-0, to eventual champion Scranton Prep.

In professional hockey, Tom Kostopoulos scored his 400th career American Hockey League point to help the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins defeat the Binghamton Senators, 4-1, Friday night.

COLLEGE CORNER

Mountain View graduates Colby Thomas and Zeb Cross are two of the top nine scorers on the Messiah College team that is ranked fifth nationally and headed back to the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III men's soccer tournament after missing out in 2015 for the only time in the last 20 years.

Messiah defeated Lebanon Valley, 4-1, to win the Commonwealth League title and improve to 17-0-3.

Thomas has played in 18 games, starting 16. He leads the team in assists with 10 and is third in overall scoring with the help of 5 assists.

Cross has played in 18 games and has two goals and two assists.

At Mountain View, Thomas and Cross led the Eagles to a state title and two straight state championship game appearances.

THE WEEK AHEAD

Our high school football predictions were 9-0 on District 2 playoff games, but 0-2 in the Eastern Conference playoffs for a total of 9-2 (81.8 percent). That brings our season record to 104-23 (81.9 percent).

The predictions will continue until the last Lackawanna Football Conference team is eliminated from the state playoffs.

Lackawanna Trail has reached state play in Class A; Delaware Valley is in the subregional final in Class 6A; and Abington Heights (5A), North Pocono (4A), Valley View (4A), Scranton Prep (3A), Dunmore (2A) and Lakeland (2A) are all still involved in District 2 playoffs.

This week's predictions, with home teams in CAPS: WILLIAMSPORT 41, Delaware Valley 36 ... WYOMING VALLEY WEST 27, Abington Heights 17 ... NORTH POCONO 18, Valley View 10 ... DUNMORE 28, Lakeland 18 ... LACKAWANNA TRAIL 19, Jenkintown 13.

In girls' volleyball, the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association quarterfinals are scheduled for Saturday.

If Blue Ridge made it through Tuesday's first round against District 4 champion Galeton, it would play the Marian Catholic-Conestoga Christian winner.

In boys' soccer, the PIAA quarterfinals are also set for Saturday.

Mountain View would need to get through Tuesday's opener against Millville to get into a game with either Moravian Academy or Kutztown.

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 MARTINSVILLE

Jimmie Johnson Wins at Martinsville

MARTINSVILLE, Vir.--Jimmie Johnson's win at Martinsville puts him in line for his seventh Sprint Cup Championship. The six-time champion led 92 laps of the 500-lap race, and cruised to victory lane by 1.291-seconds ahead of Brad Keselowski.

The win allowed Johnson to clinch the first spot in the Championship 4 for this year's Sprint Cup Showdown.

"Yes, yes, yes, this is what we needed," said Johnson. "Anything you want in life you have to work for it. It isn't going to come easy.

"Everybody knows this is a tough track and you have to work for a win here. That's just what we did. We had a good car, but we had to race hard. You can't give anything away here."

Keselowski came on strong in the latter part of the race, but was unable to overtake the leader. The 2012 Cup champion was eliminated from the Chase after last week's Talladega race.

Johnson and Denny Hamlin battled each other throughout the race with aggressive racing and flaring tempers, after the two drivers made contact on lap 198.

The contact resulted in a tire rub on Johnson's No. 48 and a caution flag on Lap 199, and then some heated words from Hamlin on the scanner.

"I mean, he thinks I'm bluffing," Hamlin said. "He thinks I'm (expletive) bluffing -- watch. ... Jimmie has been doing this ever since two years ago. He really drives like a (expletive).

"I'm trying to be patient, but he let that happen for 40 laps."

Johnson's team used a hammer to repair the dented car and he continued racing

Hamlin finished third.

Matt Kenseth, who led the most laps (172) was fourth.

Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon, Martin Truex Jr., Jamie McMurray, Joey Logano, and AJ Allmendinger were the remaining top-10 finishers.

The race was a disaster for Carl Edwards, who crashed and finished 36th. He is last in the eight driver field, 29 points behind first place Johnson.

Top-8 leaders with three to go: Johnson-4044, 2. Hamlin-4039, 3. Kenseth-4033, 4. Kyle Busch-4037, 5. Logano-4033, 6. Harvick-4021, 7. Kurt Busch-4019, 8. Edwards-4005. Note: After two more races the number of drivers will be reduced to four. The highest finishing driver at Homestead, the last race of the season, will be the 2016 Sprint Cup champion.

SAUTER GETS MARTINSVILLE TRUCK WIN

Johnny Sauter punched his ticket to the Truck Series championship race with a victory in Saturday's Texas Roadhouse 200 at the .526-mile short track.

After a restart with 18 laps left, Sauter, who finished last at Martinsville in April, held off pole winner Chase Elliott by .316 seconds.

"I'm a racer -- I think we all are -- and we're not just going to hang out these next two weeks," said Sauter. "Texas has been a race track that we've had some success at in the past. We sat on the pole there earlier this year and had a shot to win the race . We want to win races, but we're in a luxurious spot, I guess you'd call it. I want to win a championship. I've been doing this a long time, and have won races, but a championship is something that's eluded me."

John Nemechek, Christopher Bell, Timothy Peters, Daniel Suarez, Cole Custer, William Byron, Daniel Hemric, and Austin Hill were the remaining top-10 finishers.

Top-four Chase drivers with three races remaining: 1. Sauter-3036, 2. Bell-3029, 3. Peters-3028, 4. Byron-3025.

ROUSH FENWAY IN LOSING MODE

With more than 320 victories across all NASCAR national series, Roush Fenway Racing is the winningest team in the garage.

But hard times might be just around the corner.

The organization, founded by Jack Roush in 1988 with driver Mark Martin, has lost two good sponsors, and will probably lose Greg Biffle, driver of the No. 16.

Cheez-it and Kelloggs announced two weeks ago they would not be returning.

Biffle, who has been with Roush since 2003 has said, he would be leaving at the end of the 2016 season.

After re-signing with RFR in 2014, Biffle hasn't made the Chase for the Sprint Cup in the last two seasons. He thought 2016 might be his year.

With a new crew chief in Brian Pattie, a lower-downforce aero package from the sanctioning body, and a renewed effort at Roush, things appeared to line up for NASCAR's elder statesman. And now, he's 24th in the standings with just one top-five finish, at Loudon.

"I want to be competitive in races and run in the top-10," said Biffle. "That's my goal and my focus. If I'm not doing that, then I am probably going to do something different."

Although he owns the building that headquarters HScott Motorsports in North Carolina, Biffle said he has not discussed racing for Harry Scott after Clint Bowyer leaves in November.

There are rumors Ricky Stenhouse Jr., another RFR driver, who finished 40th at Martinsville, might be let go.

No word on who might replace him.

While the driver news might be somber, Jack Roush is the premier engine-builder for all the Ford teams in NASCAR. Even if he loses a team, his engine-building success will keep him in the game until he can pick up some additional sponsors.

NASCAR TO LIMIT CUP DRIVERS RACING IN OTHER SERIES

NASCAR has set new rules for those Cup drivers that currently race in the two lower series.

The new guidelines limit the number of events a Cup Series driver can race in the Xfinity and Truck Series.

Starting in 2017, Cup drivers with more than five years of full-time experience will be eligible to compete in a maximum of 10 races in the Xfinity Series and seven races in the Truck Series.

Additionally, drivers with more than five years of full-time premier series experience will be ineligible to compete in the final eight races in each series, as well as the Dash 4 Cash races in the Xfinity Series.

The final eight races are comprised of the regular season finale and the entirety of the Chase in each series.

Cup Series drivers will not be eligible to compete in the 2017 Xfinity Series and Truck Series Championship Races at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

"The updated guidelines will elevate the stature of our future stars, while also providing them the opportunity to compete against the best in professional motorsports," said Jim Cassidy, NASCAR Senior V-P of racing operations. "These updated guidelines are the result of a collaborative effort involving the entire industry, and will ultimately better showcase the emerging stars of NASCAR."

Weekend Racing: There are three races left in the 2016 season for all three of NASCAR's major series. This weekend they will be at the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway just outside Ft. Worth, Tex.

Fri., Nov. 4, Truck Series race 21 of 23; Starting time: 8:30 pm ET; TV: Foxsports1.

Sat., Nov. 5, Xfinity Series race 31 of 33; Starting time: 3:30 pm ET; TV: NBC.

Sun., Nov. 6, Sprint Cup Series race 34 of 36; Starting time: 2 pm ET; TV: NBC.

Racing Trivia Question: What year was Texas Motor Speedway opened?

Last Week's Question. Where is Chase Elliott's hometown? Answer. It is Dawsonville, Georgia.

You may contact the Racing Reporter by e-mail at: hodges@race500.com

EDWARDS AND TEAM GET THE JOB DONE

Edwards and team get the job done (Furnished by NASCAR)

FT. WORTH, Tex.--Carl Edwards took advantage of a fast pit stop to win Sunday's rain-delayed and shortened Sprint Cup race.

Edwards entered Sunday's race needing a victory to advance to the Championship race. After an 11-second pit stop by his crew that put him in the lead on lap 257, he held on for the final 36 laps.

"This is really a good test for us," said Edwards. "We had the adversity last week. We knew what we had to do. To be able to actually go do it is great. That was really nice.

"Now we know we can do it. We've been through it. We just have to go to Homestead and do it again.

"Like I said then, I'll say it again, anything short of a championship will be a disappointment. We have a championship-caliber team, parts, crew, pit crew. We need to be able to go do it."

After a six hour rain delay pushed the scheduled day race to a night race, NASCAR shortened the scheduled 334-lap race to 293-laps.

Edwards' win at Texas guarantees he will be racing for the Sprint Cup championship, along with Jimmie Johnson in two weeks.

Joey Logano had the fastest car in the early going, leading 178-laps, but failed to overtake Edwards at the end.

"We had such a fast car, especially in the beginning of the race," Logano said. "Took off and we drove off to a six- or seven-second lead. Was feeling pretty good about it. As the track kind of changed, we lost our handle a little bit. Lost the lead. Kind of went all the way back to fifth.

"There's a lot of cars that are going to be close going into Phoenix. It's going to be entertaining. It's going to be probably the closest Phoenix race we've ever seen as far as points. It's going to be a fun one, for sure."

Martin Truex Jr., who has had an up and down season led 66-laps and finished third.

"The rain didn't come at the right time for us," said Truex. "I needed for the race to go all the way. We were really good on long runs and that was going to be our only chance to win. But the guys gave me a great car and everyone did their job.

"We weren't that good in our practices on Friday and Saturday, but we came back today with a fast hot rod. We're all a little disappointed finishing third. We want to win races and we have two more to go to try to get to Victory Lane."

Chase Elliott was fourth, followed by Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Kasey Kahne, Denny Hamlin, and Ryan Newman.

Top-8 Chase drivers: 1. Johnson-4074, 2. Logano-4074, 3. Kyle Busch-4074, 4. Kenseth-4073, 5. Hamlin-4072, 6. Edwards-4049, 7. Harvick-4049, 8. Kurt Busch-4049.

After next week's Phoenix race the Chase field will be narrowed to the top-four drivers. Johnson and Edwards are locked into the final Championship race at Homestead by virtue of their wins.

LARSON TAKES XFINITY RACE

Sprint Cup driver Kyle Larson won Saturday's Xfinity Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. He gained the lead from Brad Keselowski on lap 170 and led the remaining 30-laps.

Keselowski was second, followed by Kevin Harvick, Erik Jones, Daniel Suarez, Elliott Sadler, Austin Dillon, Brennan Poole, and Matt Tifft.

Top-8 Chase leaders with two remaining races: 1. Suarez-3075, 2. Sadler-3074, 3. E. Jones-3065, 4. Koch-3059, 5. Allgaier-3058, 6. Reed-3054, 7. Wallace Jr.-3038, 8. Gaughan-3036.

SAUTER WINS TEXAS TRUCK RACE

Here are the top-10 finishers of Friday's Truck Series race: 1. Johnny Sauter, 2. Matt Crafton, 3. Daniel Hemric, 4. Tyler Reddick, 5. Daniel Suarez, 6. William Byron, 7. Spencer Gallagher, 8. Austin Dillon, 9. Cole Custer, 10. Cameron Hayley.

Top-6 Chase leaders with two remaining races: 1. Sauter-3072, 2. Byron-3052, 3. Bell-3051, 4. Crafton-3048, 5. Peters-3047, 6. Kennedy-3035.

HOW HEALTHY IS NASCAR

NASCAR does not see the drop in attendance at tracks and on television as a sign the sport is decreasing in popularity.

According to a recent USA TODAY article, NASCAR sees attendance and TV ratings as shallow measures of the sport's overall consumption. They're important metrics, NASCAR chief operating officer Brent Dewar said, but don't tell the whole story. What's important in today's world for sports fans, Dewar said, is overall engagement. And Dewar thinks when digital and social metrics are factored in, NASCAR is as popular as ever.

"It used to be in the old days about the numbers and the attendance," Dewar said. "When we get into numerology discussions, I think we're being way too simplistic about how all sports have evolved. ... The numbers matter and attendance matters, but it's about the quality of the experience. And that's where you see us investing heavily."

USA TODAY Sports asked about 200 fans at tracks, on the phone and on social media who have reduced their racetrack trips to explain why. The three most-cited reasons:

Cost. Fans said tickets are the smallest impact on their financial decision, because ticket prices are dwarfed by the cost of hotel rooms and transportation to events.

NASCAR's competition-related decisions and constant rules changes have hurt the sport's credibility and turned off some traditional fans, such as Jim and Lanette Williams, who opted to travel and see more of the USA instead of spending many weeks a year following NASCAR.

"The constant changes NASCAR does, it doesn't have the same good feeling it used to have," Lanette Williams, 63, told USA TODAY Sports. "We've just lost interest in NASCAR. They have lost interest in us."

The experience is different. Instead of a midway with souvenir haulers, there's now one merchandise tent area. Prerace entertainment such as the Sprint Experience and Fox's NASCAR RaceDay TV stage are gone.

"We have to find the value package that connects to a new generation of fans," Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 2 Penske Ford said. "If we have initiatives like (kids on the red carpet), hopefully they will turn into our future fans. I think everybody agrees that is the right direction."

Ultimately, NASCAR and its teams need sponsorship to survive. But attendance and TV ratings might not matter to companies as long as NASCAR has a positive impact on their bottom lines.

"As long as the needle is moving on their business, that's ultimately their No. 1 measurement," Zak Brown of Just Marketing International said. "Measuring eyeballs and attendance is less than, 'Did I sell more cans of Coke? Did I sell more Subway sandwiches?' As long as those metrics say, 'I sold more because of my NASCAR sponsorship,' that becomes priority No. 1."

Just how healthy is NASCAR?

It all seems to depend on who you talk with.

Weekend Racing: The next to last race of the season will be at the one-mile Phoenix, Arizona track. It will feature all three of NASCAR's major series'.

Fri., Nov. 11, Truck Series race 22 of 23; Starting time: 8:30 pm ET; TV: Foxsports1.

Sat., Nov. 12, Xfinity Series race 32 of 33; Starting time: 3:30 pm ET; TV: NBC.

Sun., Nov. 13, Sprint Cup Series race 35 of 36; Starting time: 2:30 pm ET; TV: NBC.

Racing Trivia Question: Who was the most Popular Driver in 2015?

Last Week's Question. What year was Texas Motor Speedway opened? Answer. It opened in 1997. The first race winner was Jeff Burton.

You may contact the Racing Reporter by e-mail at: hodges@race500.com

Zach Mead

Zach Mead shared the leadership role with other experienced teammates throughout the regular season as Montrose repeated as undefeated Lackawanna League boys cross country champions.

When it came time to add to the accomplishments of last year's squad, Mead led the way.

The senior won an individual gold medal Oct. 26 while helping Montrose run away with the Class A boys team title in the District 2 Championships at Lakeland.

Those efforts also earned an appearance at the state championships for the Meteors.

For his accomplishments, Mead has been named Susquehanna County Transcript Athlete of the Month for October.

"I had points in the race where I tried to do my part and lead, especially in the first mile, that's where I'm stronger," Mead said. "I think a big part of our team was, our first three guys, depending on the day and the course, it was anybody's race.

"That day, I had a better race than my teammates."

Mead completed the 3.1-mile course in 16:42.69 with Brandon Curley and Owen Brewer following for a Montrose sweep of the top three spots on the way to a 23-69 win over Elk Lake, the second-place team in the standings.

Mead was a three-sport athlete from his freshman year at Montrose, although his first fall season was on the soccer field. It was distance running for conditioning in soccer, something he struggled with at first, that led Mead to improvement in track and field after his freshman season and a switch to cross country for the fall of his sophomore year.

In the winter, Mead swims at Elk Lake as part of a cooperative sponsorship of the sport between the two schools.

Zach lives in Montrose and is the son of Jeffrey Mead and Amy Duffy.

2016 has been a very exciting season for the Susquehanna Jr Sabers C-TEAM 7-8 year old youth football team.

The Susquehanna JR Sabers C-Team came out of their season as the East Division champs finishing the regular season with a 7-0 record.  They continued to the 1st round playoff game and crushed Union Endicott Tigers to advance to the second round playoffs where they met Johnson City for a turf battle.  They took a stand against the wildcats to continue their undefeated season, becoming the Eastern Division Champions! 

For the very first time in the Southern Tier Youth Football Conference (STYFC) the Susquehanna JR Sabers C-Team boys fought their way to the Super Bowl! 

Meeting up with the Candor Indians this past Sunday in Apalachin NY, Candor being the best team in the West Division and winning their division championship title with an undefeated 9-0 season as well!

A tough battle in the pouring rain ended up with the Jr Sabers coming out on top with a complete shut out and 19-0 victory! 

Scoring 376 points throughout the season and only giving up 47, here's a look at how the season went:

Sabers @ vestal2: 40-6

ME White @ sabers: 0-47

Sabers @ Windsor: 46-0

Blue ridge @ sabers: 0-47

Sabers @ susquehanna valley: 40-0

Chenango forks1 @ sabers: 14-25

Montrose @ sabers: 0-49

Union Endicott @ sabers: 13-44

Johnson city @ sabers: 14-19

Candor @ sabers: 0-19

We would like to congratulate all of the boys of the SJS C-Team and Coach Phil, Frank, Jeff and Chad for ending the season with a Super Bowl win and an amazing 10-0 undefeated season. 

Congratulations to Weston Yannone and William Hobart for being selected for the East Division All Star team and moving on to compete in the All Star game taking place in Windsor NY this Sunday! 

We are proud of you!

Thank you to all the parents, cheerleaders and the entire SJS organization, community and fans for your support!