The number of high school students at Susquehanna and Forest City is on the rise, while it is declining at the other four Susquehanna County schools, according to enrollment figures released by the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Friday.
The PIAA revealed enrollment numbers and the classifications in which schools will compete in each sport over the next two academic years.
Susquehanna will move up from Class A to Class 2A in boys’ basketball for the 2018-19 and 2019-20 school years. Basketball is the only boys’ sport in which Susquehanna won a District 2 title in 2016-17.
The PIAA collects new three-grade enrollment figures, separated by boys and girls, every two years. Those enrollment numbers determine classifications for each sport.
Schools remain within their same class for this school year to complete the current two-year cycle.
The change in enrollment totals does not alter the classes in which Forest City will be competing.
Susquehanna’s current enrollment figures are 94 boys and 82 girls. Those numbers will rise to 111 and 88 for the next two years.
Forest City goes from 107 boys and 75 girls to 110 boys and 79 girls.
Montrose is undergoing the most distinct enrollment reduction, dropping from 185 boys and 197 girls to 155 boys and 164 girls.
Blue Ridge, Mountain View and Elk Lake also have reductions ahead.
Blue Ridge is going from 126 boys and 115 girls to 115 boys and 94 girls. Mountain View is going from 136 boys and 119 girls to 114 boys and 109 girls. Elk Lake currently has 140 each of boys and girls and will switch to 133 boys and 120 girls.
With the enrollment changes, Montrose moves from 3A to 2A in baseball, from 2A to A in boys’ soccer, from 2A to A in girls’ cross country and from 2A to A in girls’ soccer.
Blue Ridge goes from 2A to A in softball.
The school is no longer listed as co-sponsoring boys’ soccer with Susquehanna. If that holds true, the Raiders will go from 2A to A there as well.
Elk Lake drops from 2A to A in girls’ volleyball.
Like Forest City, the slight changes in enrollment numbers do not change classes for any Mountain View sports.
Montrose is currently listed as remaining in Class 2A in football. However, the school was approved by the District 2 committee in August to resume co-sponsoring the sport with Elk Lake while also adding students from Mountain View for the football team.
Once that move gets approval on the state level, Montrose will have to count half the boys from both Elk Lake and Mountain View in its enrollment totals for football only. That projects a move up to Class 4A.
Although they are not likely to create a significant shake-up beyond football for county schools, the new classifications help drive realignment within the Lackawanna Interscholastic Athletic Association, which oversees the Lackawanna Football Conference and other Lackawanna League sports.
CHAMPIONSHIP CONTRIBUTORS
Cullen Chesnick, a 5-foot-11, 180-pound running back/defensive back from Clifford Township, is a senior on the unbeaten Scranton Prep football team that has advanced to the state Class 3A football quarterfinals for the second straight year.
Chesnick had a five-yard carry and a tackle Nov. 10 when Scranton Prep won its third straight District 2 Class 3A title with a 54-7 rout of Lake-Lehman.
Chesnick is the sixth-leading rusher on the 13-0 team, which also won the Lackawanna Football Conference Division 2 title and Friday night added a 31-28 win over Loyalsock Township in a PIAA state playoff game in Williamsport.
Two players from the county were big contributors to the Scranton Prep boys’ soccer team that won Lackawanna League Division 3 and District 2 Class 2A titles before falling to defending champion Lewisburg, 3-2, in the first round of state play.
Spencer Keihl, a freshman midfielder/forward from New Milford, played in all 19 games for the Cavaliers (17-1-1). He was third on the team with 10 assists and also scored 6 goals.
Blaize Whitehead, a sophomore midfielder from Kingsley, had four goals and five assists while playing in 14 games.
COLLEGE CORNER
Colby Thomas and Zeb Cross won a state title together and reached another state final while playing at Mountain View.
Now, Thomas and Cross are headed to the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III men’s soccer Final Four as seniors at Messiah University in Grantham.
Playing on its home field, Messiah won a pair of weekend games, getting scoring help from Thomas in both.
Thomas had a goal and an assist when Messiah (22-2) beat Stevens Institute of Technology, 3-2, in the rain Saturday. He assisted the second goal Sunday in a 2-0 win over the University of Rochester to clinch a spot in the Dec. 3 national semifinals in Salem, Va.
Messiah opened the NCAA Tournament a week earlier with a pair of 1-0 wins over Castleton University and Hobart College.
Thomas has started all 24 games. He leads the team with 11 assists and ranks third in goals with 9.
Cross has appeared in 18 games, including 3 of 4 in the national tournament. He has made one start and has two goals and an assist.
Thomas beat the defense down the right side and sent a cross to Nick West for a goal and a 2-0 lead against Stevens. His goal gave Messiah a late 3-1 lead.
Messiah is going to its 15th Final Four, but first since Thomas and Cross arrived with the school.
THE WEEK AHEAD
Valley View (Class 5A), Scranton Prep (3A) and Dunmore (2A) are all in the state football quarterfinals.
Our high school football predictions for last week were 4-1 (80.0 percent), making us 19-2 (90.5) for the playoffs and 102-23 (81.6) for the season. The predictions will continue until all LFC teams are done.
This week’s predictions: Imhotep Charter 31, Valley View 24 … Middletown 35, Scranton Prep 24 … Ligonier Valley 31, Dunmore 21.
TOM ROBINSON writes a weekly local sports column for the Susquehanna County Transcript. He can reached online at RobbyTR@aol.com or followed on Twitter at @tomjrobinson.
TRUEX WINS IT ALL
Christopher Bell 2017 NASCAR Truck Series Champion
William Byron 2017 NASCAR Xfinity Series Champion
Crew Chief Cole Pearn and 2017 NASCAR Cup Champion Martin Truex Jr.
HOMESTEAD, Fla.--One of the first things Martin Truex Jr. received after winning Sunday's Cup Series race and the 2017 Championship was a big hug and kiss from his girlfriend, Sherry Pollex.
Truex had a series-best eight wins, the most of any driver, but the championship came down to the last lap of the last race. The distance between winning and being an also ran was less than twenty five feet.
That was his margin of victory over runner-up Kyle Busch.
“I don't know really what to say,” said Truex. “We focused on this race for a long time. We knew it was going to be tough. You've got to understand what this means and how big it is. I was just the driver. We've had so many people and partners that made this possible.”
Racing was close between Truex and Busch as the laps wound down. Both teams were rooting for their respective driver. But no individual appreciated Truex anymore than his girlfriend.
“I knew Kyle was close to him, but I knew Martin was going to win,” Pollex said. “He's not a quitter. He's come too far. I knew he wasn't going to give up.”
A very disgruntled Kyle Busch is the driver that came up short.
The ending scenario began on lap 230 of the 267-lap race after Kurt Busch spun bringing out the race's last caution. On the restart, the front four drivers were: Truex, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Joey Logano.
Truex pulled away, followed by Harvick. Logano had gotten into Busch, causing him to slip and lose several spots.
Truex and Harvick raced each other, while Kyle Busch regained his momentum. By lap 245 Busch had passed Logano and was running third. Five laps later, he had gotten by Harvick for second-place. With ten-to-go Busch had closed to within one hundred feet of the the leader.
During lap 264 Kyle Larson, who was also racing for the win got into the rear of Busch's No. 18, causing Busch's car to slip. Busch had to let off the gas briefly, but it was enough to allow Truex some breathing room, and Busch could only watch as Truex took the victory flag and 2017 Cup Series championship twenty five feet in front of him.
“Well, I can tell I had a lot of buddies out there today,” said Busch referring to Logano and Larson. “We had the fastest car and gave it all we had. It's unfortunate that last caution came out and it put us out of our format. That's racing. We'll be back next year, and maybe we'll get them then.”
I'm quite sure that Busch will reward Logano and Larson with some type of payback in 2018.
Larson who led the most laps (142) was third and Kevin Harvick, another Chase driver was fourth.
“I thought we did pretty well at times, but we had several little handling problems,” said Harvick. “The first one was loose handling. We got that fixed, and then we were too tight going in. It was like that all during the race. We just didn't quite have what we needed.”
Chase Elliott was fifth, while Joey Logano was sixth.
Brad Keselowski, the fourth Chase driver was seventh. He led one lap but was never a threat to the other leaders. Almost every time he entered his pits, he would lose two or three spots due to slow team efforts.
“We were just about two/tenths off today,” he said “We didn't do the things we needed to do today. We've got to work on our speed. Things just didn't play out the way we needed it to. I think we need some time off.”
Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin and Ryan Newman rounded out the top-10 drivers.
Danica Patrick's day ended in a bad way. She had a right rear tire go down, causing her to hit the outside wall. Kasey Kahne ran into the back of her car, setting it on fire. She was unhurt but finished her last NASCAR race in 37th position.
Final top-10 leaders: 1. Truex, 2. Kyle Busch, 3. Harvick, 4. Keselowski, 5. Elliott, 6. Hamlin, 7. Kenseth, 8. Larson, 9. Blaney, 10. Johnson.
JOY AND FRUSTRATION AFTER XFINITY RACE
HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Cole Custer and William Byron celebrated Saturday night in victory lane. Custer won his first Xfinity Series race, while 19-year-old William Byron captured the series title
A dejected Elliott Sadler said, “This has been the worst racing night of my career.”
Sadler, who had been racing Byron for the championship was involved in an altercation with Ryan Preece, with four laps to go, which knocked him out of contention.
Custer took the checkered flag a whopping 15.405 seconds ahead of second-place Sam Hornish Jr. The real action, however, occurred five laps before the finish.
Four drivers had a chance at the championship: Byron, Sadler, Justin Allgaier and Daniel Hemric. Allgaier and Hemric were mired back in the field, while Sadler and Byron were near the front. The highest finishing driver would be the the 2017 Xfinity Series championship.
From about lap 145 to 163 of the 200-lap race, Byron had been running fourth, with Sadler right on his rear bumper. Sadler passed Byron, his JR Motorsports teammate on Lap 164, and stayed ahead of him until Lap 194.
But young Byron also had his sights on the championship, and wasn't ready to give up. He remained only one or two car lengths back. As the two drivers approached the No. 18 Toyota driven by Ryan Preece, Byron went low and managed to get by Preece. Sadler, who was running the high side of the track, attempted to also go under the No. 18. Preece came down in front of Sadler, causing Sadler to hit the No. 18 and lose control.
Sadler hit the wall.
His title hopes were dashed.
The disconsolate driver finished second in the Xfinity Series standings for the fourth time, and his disappointment stood in marked contrast to the elation of his young teammate.
Sadler confronted Preece after the race and pushed him twice, before NASCAR officials intervened.
“All of my moves and passes today were aboveboard,” said Sadler. “To think that someone would come down and wreck me when he knew I was going for the championship is beyond me. I don't know what he has against me, but he just wrecked me.”
While Sadler was having it out with Preece, Byron was living it up in victory lane.
That's racing folks.
Sadler finished second in the final points standings, followed by: Allgaier, Hemric, Custer, Brennan Poole, Matt Tifft, Ryan Reed, Michael Annett, and Brendan Gaughan.
BELL EARNS TRUCK TITLE
Chase Briscoe got his first Truck Series victory at Homestead, while Christopher Bell claimed his first NASCAR championship. It was Kyle Busch Motorsports second title in three years.
“To be able to do this for all of the guys at Kyle Busch Motorsports and to win the championship for a team that deserves the championship, words just can't describe my feelings right now,” said Bell. “This whole organization, this whole team has been good for so many years. You just don't want to be the guy that lets them down, and I'm glad I didn't let them down tonight.”
The final top-10 Truck Series points leaders: 1. Bell, 2. Johnny Sauter, 3. Austin Cindric, 4. Matt Crafton, 5. Ben Rhodes, 6. Chase Briscoe, 7. Kaz Grala, 8. John Nemechek, 9. Ryan Truex, 10. Noah Gragson.
Next Week: The Saga of Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Racing Trivia Question: Where is Danica Patrick's hometown?
Last Week's Question: Who will be the driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Toyota in the 2018 Cup Series? Answer. Rookie Eric Jones will replace Matt Kenseth.
Gerald Hodges is a syndicated NASCAR writer and author. His books may be viewed and ordered online at Amazon.com. You may contact him by e-mail at: hodges@race500.com.
