Cameron Franks from Blue Ridge goes up for a spike in the District 2 third-place match against Abington Heights. Teammates Cavlin Scheideler (13) and Luke Updyke (6) look on (Tom Robinson Photo)
DALLAS TWP. – Blue Ridge came on strong in the third game of each match, but suffered a pair of losses to fall one place and one victory short of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Class 2A boys' volleyball tournament with a fourth-place finish in the District 2 Tournament.
The Raiders lost to a pair of regular-season champions after advancing to the district semifinals for the first time under fifth-year coach Lori Zick.
Lackawanna League champion Abington Heights recovered in the fourth game to beat Blue Ridge for the third time this season during Thursday's third-place match at Dallas High School.
The Comets won, 25-23, 25-21, 9-25, 25-19, in the match that determined the district's final state qualifier.
Unbeaten Wyoming Valley Conference champion Holy Redeemer, which went on to win the district championship in Thursday's doubleheader, had defeated visiting Blue Ridge, 25-12, 25-12, 25-19, in the May 22 semifinals in Wilkes-Barre.
Garrett Mansfield had 11 kills and 18 digs for Blue Ridge in the loss to Abington Heights.
Cameron Franks had 10 kills and 22 digs. Charlie Randall had 19 digs while Ben Bleck had 13. Calvin Scheideler contributed nine digs, four blocks and three kills.
Blue Ridge actually scored more total points than Abington Heights in the match because of its Game Three dominance.
"They had a lot more energy than us," Abington Heights coach Jamie Spangler said of the third game. "Things kind of snowballed like they do in this sport."
The Raiders showed some of that same energy while battling late in their match against state-ranked Holy Redeemer, which went 15-0 with 15 three-game sweeps this season to extend its winning streak against District 2 competition to 85 matches.
The Royals won their eighth straight title with Thursday's sweep of Berwick.
Mansfield had 11 digs and eight kills in the loss. Franks had 13 digs, Randall five assists and Bleck six digs and five assists.
Ben Rachilla, a 6-foot-5, returning all-state player who has committed to play at Division I Quincy University in Illinois led Holy Redeemer with 23 kills.
"We knew they were going to get big hits," Zick said. "We couldn't get down about that. We just had to move on to the next point.
"(Rachilla) is an amazing hitter."
A year after Blue Ridge's unbeaten Lackawanna League championship team was upset in the first round of the district tournament, Zick was pleased with her team's playoff performance.
"Last year, we felt real good going into the playoffs, we were number-one and we lost to number-eight," Zick said. "These guys have been doing a better job of doing better as time goes on, continuing to get better instead of plateauing and being where we're at."
WEEK IN REVIEW
Alex Showalter led Mountain View to a 6-4 upset of host Blue Ridge in Wednesday's District 2 Class 2A baseball quarterfinals.
The seventh-seeded Eagles scored four times in the top of the seventh to rally for the win.
Showalter was the winning pitcher in relief, hit a two-run homer and drove in the winning run when he was hit by a pitch with the bases-loaded during the seventh-inning rally.
Montrose and Elk Lake each suffered quarterfinal losses at home Thursday.
Meyers defeated Montrose, 10-5, in Class 3A.
Northwest downed Elk Lake, 10-6, in Class 2A.
Montrose got in trouble early and Elk Lake ran into problems late.
Meyers opened a 7-1 lead after 1 ½ innings at Montrose.
Nick Warriner had three hits, Bryden Jerauld homered and drove in three runs and Andrew Rapisardi went 2-for-3 with a homer for the Meteors.
Elk Lake led 4-1 after four innings and 6-3 after five.
Connor Hazlet went 4-for-4 with five RBI for Northwest, which scored twice in the sixth and five times in the seventh for the win.
Nate Pettyjohn had a single, double and four RBI to lead Elk Lake.
In softball, Montrose, Elk Lake and Forest City each won quarterfinal playoff games Thursday and were still active in the semifinal rounds as of presstime.
Top-seeded Montrose advanced in District 2 Class 3A with a 6-4 victory over visiting Carbondale.
Elk Lake, the seventh-seed, went on the road to upset second-seeded Lackawanna Trail, 5-0, in District 2 Class 2A.
Forest City was also a road winner, beating fourth-seeded Mahanoy Area, 8-5, in the District 2-11 Class A Subregional. The Lady Foresters entered the tournament as the fifth seed.
Tomiann Holiday drove in four runs for Forest City, which did all of its scoring over the final three innings.
Mountain View and Blue Ridge each lost to lower-seeded opponents at home in the District 2 Class 2A tournament.
Ninth-seeded Riverside beat eighth-seeded Mountain View, 16-3, in six innings the May 21 opening round.
Old Forge eliminated Blue Ridge, 6-2, in Thursday's quarterfinals.
COLLEGE CORNER
Lackawanna College's Dylan O'Dell improved during each of his rounds at the National Junior College Athletic Association Division II Golf Tournament where he finished 107th in the nation.
The sophomore from Forest City shot rounds of 87, 82 and 79 at Glen Lakes Golf Club in Foley, Ala. May 21-23 for a three-day total of 32-over-par, 248.
With weather problems anticipated for Thursday's final round, the NJCAA trimmed the field to players at 15-over or better in order to help get the tournament completed. O'Dell was one of the players eliminated prior to the final round.
THE WEEK AHEAD
Former Susquehanna football coach Dick Bagnall will be honored during a dinner at the Moose Club Saturday at 7 p.m.
Bagnall was recently selected for induction into the Pennsylvania High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
Several speakers have been lined up and an open mic period will be included in the program for others who wish to make a comment. Attendees are requested to call the Moose at 570-853-3929 to reserve spots for the $10 barbecue chicken dinner and indicate at that time if they would like to be able to speak.
In baseball, the District 2-11 Class A Subregional final is scheduled for Wednesday.
Forest City was set to play MMI Prep in a subregional final and district semifinal Tuesday. The winner will play Tri-Valley for the championship.
The District 2 Class 2A final is Wednesday at 5 p.m. at PNC Field in Moosic. Mountain View needed a semifinal win over Northwest to reach the game.
In softball, the District 2 Class 3A and 2A championship games are scheduled for Friday.
Montrose was playing Lakeland in 3A and Elk Lake was facing Old Forge in Class 2A in games to determine spots in those district finals.
EDITOR'S NOTE
Because of early deadlines for the holiday weekend, coverage of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Track and Field Championships is not included in this edition of the Susquehanna County Transcript. Subscribers can look for updates online at susquehannatranscript.com and the state track results, along with other holiday weekend events, will also be included in next week's print edition.
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.
REX WHITE IS DOING WELL
Rex White, 1960 NASCAR Champion
NASCAR Hall of Fame driver Rex White is alive and well. The 88-year-old White is a living legend, who was recently named as one of the 50 Greatest Race Car Drivers Of All Time.
Chances are, however, unless someone is an old time NASCAR fan, his name won't ring a bell.
He is a true pioneer of his sport, helping pave the way for the Tony Stewarts, the Jimmie Johnsons, the Dale Earnhardts and the Jeff Gordons, who are now household names.
White is NASCAR's oldest living champion, and his humor-packed racing stories continue to entertain fans across the country.
He didn't expect his life to change very much after he was named to the 2015 induction class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame, but he quickly discovered that wasn't going to be the case.
"Everything's changed – nothing's normal," White said from his home in Fayetteville, Georgia. "It's unbelievable how my popularity increased. The fan mail has been unbelievable. I get quite a bit of mail from Germany now. I get mail from Afghanistan, the soldiers wanting autographs and pictures. A lot more people want to talk to me for some reason."
Long before multi-million dollar prize money and huge endorsement deals turned today's most popular and successful drivers into celebrities with huge bank accounts, White and his fellow drivers laid the foundation for stock car racing.
"Racing is a whole lot different now than it was back then," White said. "About the only thing that has stayed the same is the green and checkered flags, and they might try to change that any day."
White was a jack-of-all trades, often serving as his own mechanic and racing just about anywhere there was a race track, sometimes on a Friday night and then again on Saturday.
"When and where we raced depended on the amount of cash in my back pocket," he continued. "There was no such thing as an operating budget. We raced on what we had."
White said bologna sandwiches were considered a luxury if he didn't do well on a race night. He and his crew chief "Slick" Owens often had "dust sandwiches" for lunch, which were peanut butter and cheese crackers.
Although White only competed from 1956 to 1964, concluding his career at the Atlanta Motor Speedway over 50 years ago, he put up impressive numbers, winning 28 times, finishing with 163 top-10s and winning the pole 36 times.
White's best season came in 1960, when he won the Grand National Series points title, capturing six checkered flags and finishing outside the top-10 just five times in 40 starts.
He remembers most tracks never turned a driver away. If a driver paid the entrance fee, he could race. That made for some huge fields and some dangerous crashes, with some events featuring more than 70 cars.
"I was really lucky," White said. "I never really got hurt in a race. The only time I ever got hurt was in a long distance race in Mexico, but that wasn't part of NASCAR. I hurt my back and spent several days in the hospital."
During his career, he won $223,511, with his biggest payday in one race coming when he collected just over $13,000 in an event at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Today, drivers often match his career earnings in one race.
"I don't know if drivers today recognize or appreciate what we did for them," White said. "But I think most do."
White still lives at his home Fayetteville, GA. He had the flu this past February and wasn't able to attend this year's Daytona 500, but he still has plans to visit several tracks and events during the 2018 season.
TEAM OWNERS IN DISCORD WITH NASCAR
Some team owners and their top executives are frustrated by the slow pace of change, which has strained their relationship with NASCAR. This comes as this year's season has seen a continued drop in attendance and ratings, which has ratcheted up the pressure for more dramatic change.
"For a sport based on speed, it's ironic that we are not nimble and fast enough to quickly make changes," Andrew Murstein, majority owner of Richard Petty Motorsports, wrote in an email. "I believe we are moving forward and are on the right path, but I would like to see it happen sooner rather than later."
The issues causing frustration include cost controls, the feeling from some that NASCAR needs to run fewer or shorter races and do so at different venues, questions about NASCAR's long-term management plan, and a perceived lack of cohesiveness over new initiatives.
Several team owners have pushed NASCAR's leadership, led primarily by President Brent Dewar and COO Steve Phelps, for greater change. Teams are working particularly hard to find ways to lower costs, and some even want to introduce a budget cap on how much teams can spend per car annually. A team source involved with meetings between the teams and NASCAR pegged the potential cap at between $15 million and $20 million per car, but questions remain about whether owners truly could agree on a cap and how NASCAR would govern it.
Some team executives are now turning their attention toward getting midweek dates on the 2020 schedule. The thought has been to try them at tracks that are closer to cities and thus less dependent on camping revenue than more rural tracks.
No matter who is right and who is wrong, there needs to be some type of middle ground where changes can be made quicker than in the past.
Weekly Racing Joke: Joey Logano walks into a bank in central New York City and asks for the loan officer. He says he's going to Europe on business for two weeks and needs to borrow $5,000.
The bank officer says the bank will need some kind of security for the loan, so Logano hands over the keys to a new Rolls Royce.
The bank agrees to accept the car as collateral for the loan. The bank's president and its officers all enjoy a good laugh at Logano for using a $250,000 Rolls as collateral against a $5,000 loan. An employee of the bank then proceeds to drive the Rolls into the bank's underground garage and parks it there.
Two weeks later, Logano returns, repays the $5,000 and the interest which comes to $55.41. The loan officer says, "Joey, we are very happy to have had your business, and this transaction has worked out very nicely, but we are a little puzzled. While you were away, we checked you out and found that you are a multimillionaire. What puzzles us is, why would you bother to borrow $5,000?"
Logano replies, "Where else in New York City can I park my Rolls for two weeks for only $55.41 and expect it to be there when I return?"
Weekend Racing: The Cup and Xfinity teams will be at the 2.5-mile Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania.
Sat., June 2; Xfinity Series race 12 of 33; Starting time: 1 pm ET; TV: FoxSports1.
Sun., June 3; Cup Series race 14 of 36; Starting time: 2 pm ET; TV: FoxSports1.
Racing Trivia Question: Which old time NASCAR driver had the vision of building Charlotte Motor Speedway?
Last week's question. Which Cup driver has the most wins at Charlotte? Answer. Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip are tied with six each.
Gerald Hodges is a syndicated NASCAR photojournalist and author. You may contact him by e-mail at: hodges@race500.com.
Susquehanna senior Skyla Wilson wrapped up her high school athletic career with her second straight two-state silver medal performance in the hurdles in the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Track and Field Championships at Shippensburg University Friday and Saturday.
Wilson, the 2017 Susquehanna County Transcript Athlete of the Year for the country, took second in both the 100- and 300-meter hurdles in Shippensburg.
After leading all competitors in the first round of 100-meter hurdles qualifying with a time of 14.68 seconds, Wilson was fourth in the semifinals with 14.74.
In the final, four girls finished within one-tenth of a second of each other, with Wilson's time of 14.52 good for second place, four-hundredths of a second behind the winner.
Wilson ran the 300 hurdles in 42.29 seconds in the final to place second. She had been third during qualifying heats with 45.02.
The two second-place finishes matched Wilson's state performance in the same events in 2017. She went into this year's state meet as the second seed in both.
Wilson produced 16 team points, putting Susquehanna in a tie for 10th place in the final Class 2A girls team standings.
While Wilson earned the only medals by county athletes, Elk Lake's Lydia Ofalt joined her in the top 10. Ofalt placed 10th in 400-meter qualifying with a time of 1:00.26. She needed to reach the top eight to make the finals.
Brandon Curley from Montrose was also two spots out of the final in the boys' 1600-meter run. He was 14th in 4:30.64 in an event where 12 reach the final.
Forest City's Sarah Korty, competing with Carbondale's team, placed 14th in the discus and 16th in the shot put.
The Montrose girls' 400-meter relay team placed 16th.
Elk Lake's Shyanne Bennett finished 21st in the girls' 3200 run.
Montrose's Brennan Gilhool was 28th in the boys' 100 dash.
