Blue Ridge’s Jeff Morris was named to the Small School first team and five other players from Susquehanna County were recognized when NPF Sports released its all-District 2 basketball teams.

Morris, who also was named Lackawanna League Division 4 Player of the Year by coaches, averaged 19 points per game for the Raiders. Blue Ridge won the division’s first half and had the best all-season record in division play.

The Small School team featured the best players from all Class 3A, 2A and A teams in the district.

Malachi Phillips, a Mountain View School District resident who played at Holy Cross, and Elk Lake senior Ben Woolcock were second-team choices.

Phillips, a 6-foot-6 senior center, was the top scorer for Holy Cross, which won the District 2 Class 2A championship and reached the second round of the state tournament.

Woolcock was the second-leading scorer while running the offense for Elk Lake, the Lackawanna Division 4 champion.

County players filled three of the five second-team spots on the girls’ team.

Blue Ridge senior Isabella Cosmello, Forest City junior Mackenzie Hartman and Susquehanna freshman Taylor Huyck were selected.

Cosmello reached the 1,000-point mark for her career while leading Blue Ridge to a 14-win season.

Hartman led Forest City to the Lackawanna Division 4 title.

Huyck led Susquehanna to the first-half division title, the District 2 Class A championship and the first girls’ basketball state tournament win in school history.

Montrose senior 120-pounder Jacob O’Brien was a second-team choice on the all-District 2 wrestling team selected by NPF Sports. O’Brien went 32-4 on the season to finish with a 115-25 career record.

WEEK IN REVIEW

Susquehanna’s Skyla Wilson won both hurdles and anchored the winning 1600-meter relay Friday night at the first North Pocono Invitational.

Wilson led the Lady Sabers to an eighth-place finish in the 14-team field with 38 points.

North Pocono beat out Wyoming Area, 92.6-77.33, for the girls’ team title.

Blue Ridge was 11th with 28 points and Mountain View 14th with 4.67.

Wilson led a strong field of hurdlers that included fellow returning state medalist Madison Harding from Lakeland.

She finished first in 15.18 seconds in the 100 hurdles while teammate Alexia Presley was seventh. Wilson won the 300 hurdles in 46.85.

Taylor Huyck, Bethany Maby, McKenzie Rhone and Wilson won the 1600 relay in 4:20.56. Wilson’s anchor leg of 58.71 would have been good enough to win the 400 by almost a second.

Wilson also anchored the third-place 400 relay team. Presley led off, followed by Huyck and Rhone.

Blue Ridge’s Kalynne Myers was third in the high jump, clearing 4-8, while teammate Karris Fazzi scored in three events. Fazzi finished fourth in the 1600 in 6:02.05 while adding a fifth-place finish in the 800 and leading off the seventh-place 400 relay team.

Jessie Purdum was fifth in the 3200 and Isabella Cosmello was sixth in the 400.

Scranton won the boys’ championship, 154-105, over North Pocono.

Mountain View was 11th with 17 points, Blue Ridge was 14th with 10 and Montrose was 17th with two.

Travis Hickling from Blue Ridge was third in the 1600.

Earlier in the week, Montrose improved to 2-0 in Lackawanna Track Conference Division 4 boys with a 111-39 rout of Lackawanna Trail.

In boys’ volleyball, Blue Ridge swept Forest City and Elk Lake in three games each Tuesday and Thursday to improve to 7-0 and hold on to its Lackawanna League lead.

Dane Beers had 15 kills and Dominick Rogers had 28 assists in a 25-18, 25-12, 25-15 victory over Forest City.

Rogers had 14 assists and 4 aces in a 25-10, 25-10, 25-8 romp over Elk Lake.

In road running, Mary Ann Lawrenson and Tim O’Neill each finished in less than four hours and placed in the top half of the field in the 121st annual Boston Marathon April 17.

Lawrenson, a 53-year-old from Thompson, ran the 26.2-mile course in 3:47:40. She finished 11,986th out of 27,221 runners who started the race and 26,411 who finished.

O’Neill, 55, from Great Bend finished in 3:48:44. She placed 12,356th.

In professional hockey, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins let a three-goal lead get away, then rallied with 1:03 left in regulation before pulling out a 6-5 victory over the host Providence Bruins in Game Two of their opening round Calder Cup Playoff series.

David Warsofsky scored twice in the first 2:21 of the second period to open the scoring and later had two assists.

Kevin Porter had four assists, including on Josh Archibald’s tying goal with 1:03 left in regulation and on Derrick Pouliot’s game-winner 7:49 into overtime.

Archibald’s goal was his second of the game.

The Penguins, the top team in the American Hockey League during the regular season, needed the win to even the series after losing Thursday’s opener, 2-1.

COLLEGE CORNER

Freshmen Dylan O’Dell, from Forest City, and Colton Tyler, from Elk Lake, are part of the Lackawanna College golf team that has two first-place and two second-place finishes in multi-team competitions this spring.

Both have figured into the four-man team score in all four tournaments.

O’Dell and Tyler each shot 80, tying for second-best on the team, in the win at the Lehigh-Carbon Invitational April 7.

THE WEEK AHEAD

Montrose and Mountain View, the last two unbeatens in Lackawanna Division 4 boys’ track are scheduled to make up their meet Wednesday. The Meteors are 2-0. The Eagles are 1-0.

In girls’ track, Lackawanna Trail is at Elk Lake Wednesday in a meeting of two of the three teams that started the week at 2-0 in Division 4. Susquehanna and Lackawanna Trail were scheduled to meet Monday to start the process of sorting out the division lead.

In softball, Montrose (4-0) is at Lackawanna Trail (2-0) Thursday in a game between the last two Lackawanna League Division 4 unbeatens.

In professional hockey, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins are home Thursday and Friday at 7:05 for Games Three and Four of their best-of-five series with Providence. If a fifth game is needed, it will be Sunday at 3:05.

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.

JONES BUMPS TO BRISTOL XFINITY WIN

Erik Jones applies a Win Sticker to his car after winning at Bristol

BRISTOL, Tenn.--   Erik Jones put a bump and run move on Ryan Blaney with 22 laps to go in Saturday's 300-lap Xfinity Series race, and held on for his second Bristol win.

Blaney was leading after a restart, while Jones, who led 27 laps moved into second. As the field of cars entered turn-3, Jones gave Blaney a nudge, causing Blaney to wiggle. This allowed Jones to take over the lead, while Blaney slipped back to fourth.

“We were racing hard and I was able to get by and hang on there at the end,” said Jones.

There were two more restarts during the last 16 laps, and Blaney was able to work his way back up to second.

“He got under me and I wasn't going to back out,” said Blaney. “I'm not going to say what happened, I guess we just have to let it go as one of those racing deals.”

Daniel Suarez was third, followed by Elliott Sadler, Daniel Hemric, Ty Dillon, Kyle Larson, Brennan Poole, Blake Koch, Michael Annett.

Things became heated in the pits after Ross Chastain and Jeremy Clements confronted each other on pit road during a red flag period brought out by rain.

Clements appeared to approach Chastain from behind to initiate a discussion, but when he grabbed Chastain, the driver turned and punched Clements.

Clements went to the care center and emerged wearing sunglasses before he continued the race.

“Somebody grabbed me by my shoulders and kind of pushed me,” Chastain said. “I just turned around and saw who it was. I hope he realizes now that he can talk, we can talk, but you can't grab someone by the shoulders. That happened before and I said right then I wouldn't let it happen again.”

Top-10 leaders after 7 of 33: 1. Sadler-260, 2. Byron-244, 3. Allgaier-200, 4. Reed-184, 5. Hemric-180, 6. Wallace Jr.-180, 7. Koch-164, 8. Poole-163, 9. Tifft-160, 10. Annett-157.

GIBBS AND HENDRICK OFF TO BAD START

Two of NASCAR's biggest and most powerful teams are struggling to live up to expectations. Hendrick Motorsports has one win after eight races into the season, while Joe Gibbs teams have yet to find victory lane.

Both organizations have almost as much money as god, but money hasn't been able to bring them the sought after wins. But that doesn't mean that money isn't important. There is an old adage in racing, “Money buys speed”.

While NASCAR's most successful teams usually have more of the green stuff than the also-ran teams, it doesn't always equate to success.

Out of the four Hendrick teams (Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kasey Kahne, Chase Elliott, and Jimmie Johnson), only Johnson has a win.

“We feel confident we are a winning team,” said Earnhardt. “Just because we haven't won doesn't mean we aren't capable. I think we have the potential to win at any track, and I think the wins will come. I don't know where or when, but they are out there.”  

Rick Hendrick used some of his pocket change last week to buy the first 2018 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, bearing the VIN number 001. Hendrick bid $250,000 to claim the car at Barrett-Jackson auction in Palm Beach, Florida.

Joe Gibbs is a hands-on person. He has a great relationship with all his team players, and usually knows how the game plan is going.

“We’re very disappointed in the start to the season,” said Gibbs. “We need to get going.”

Before the season even started, JGR was hit by the unexpected departure of veteran driver Carl Edwards, who decided to step away from NASCAR racing as a driver.

They brought up their 2016 Xfinity Series champion, Daniel Suarez to take over the No. 19 Toyota. Four races into the season, his crew chief, Dave Rogers, left the team on an indefinite personal leave of absence.

Kyle Busch is the highest JGR driver in points. Busch is seventh in the series standings and he’s the only JGR driver with more than one top-five finish through seven races (he has two). Matt Kenseth has one and neither Suarez nor Denny Hamlin have registered a top-five.

Hamlin is 15th in points, Kenseth is 22nd and Suarez is 23rd.

“Looking at just (my team), I think we’ve been off,” said Kenseth. “We haven’t run real well. “We ran good at Atlanta but the rest of the races, we really haven’t run very well. Some things are circumstances, but if we get to running better, that cures a lot of your problems.”

With all the engineers, someone is bound to stumble on the problem.

 “We’ve spent probably the last three weeks doing a serious study and there’s probably about five things or areas that we picked out where we can make an improvement,” Gibbs said. “You have different situations at different tracks. I think Kyle has had the opportunity to win a couple times but things didn’t go our way.

“I think what this emphasizes is how hard our sport is. If you think about us last year – we had really an unbelievable year for us and yet here we are after seven races and everybody’s kind of going, ‘Hey, what’s the deal?’”

Sometimes all the money in the world can't buy a win.

And when luck returns you're back on top.

Meanwhile, the folks over at Chip Ganassi Racing are smiling. Their two drivers Kyle Larson and Jamie McMurray ended the 2016 season well, and are off to a good start in 2017.

“I think it catches some people off guard and I think it's gotten a lot of hype, but we felt like we were pretty good last year toward the end of the season; we weren't as consistent as we wanted to be,” said Chad Johnston, the crew chief on McMurray's No.1. “Performance-wise we felt like we were pretty good. We also knew we needed to continue to work hard to keep gaining on it through the offseason. I think anything less than what we started off would have been a disappointment for all of us.”

 Weekend Racing: The Cup and Xfinity teams are at the .75-mile Richmond track. The trucks do not race again until May 12.

Sat., Apr. 29, Xfinity Series race 8 of 33; Starting time: 12:30 pm ET; TV: Foxsports1.

Sun., Apr. 30, Cup Series race 9 of 36; Starting time: 2 pm ET; TV: Fox.

Racing Trivia Question: Which former NASCAR driving champion once owned part of the Richmond track?

Last Week's Question: How many Cup championships has Jack Roush won? He has two Cup championships, plus five in the Xfinity and one in the Trucks.

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