Sports

SCRANTON – Susquehanna County girls shined during the District 2 Track and Field Championships May 17-18 at Memorial Stadium.

Susquehanna junior Tatum Norris set records in three of her four sprints, capturing two gold medals and also added a second-place finish in the pole vault where she met the state qualifying standard with an effort that would have won any other district meet in the state.

While Norris was standing out individually, Montrose was winning the team title in Class 2A with seven different girls winning gold medals in either individual or relay events.

All county boys and girls competed in the Class 2A meet. The top six in each event earned medals while the top eight scored points for their teams.

Winners automatically qualified for the state championships while in boys, second-place finishers also qualified. Others could make the state meet by reaching lofty predetermined qualifying standards.

Norris set meet records during her 100- and 200-meter dash wins, both of which were accomplished with the fastest winning times in the state, which will make her the top seed for Friday and Saturday's championships in Shippensburg.

"I've been doing my research," Norris said. "I had (the records) in the back of my mind. I was really hoping to see them broken."

Norris actually broke the 200 record for the first time during qualifying when she finished in 25.47, beating the record of 25.69 set by Nanticoke's Amiah Lukowski in 2016.

Half of the qualifiers in both the 100 and 200 were from the county.

Norris then brought the mark down again on the second day of the two-day meet.

"Getting a really good warm-up helped me and just relaxing my mind a lot," said Norris, who wrapped up her meet by lowering her record to 25.35 in the 200 in. "I've just been relaxing for the last 24 hours."

Montrose's Tangi Smith, the champion in both and a state medalist last season, was second in both races, qualifying for states in each. She ran the 200 in 26.09.

Blue Ridge's Caila George was sixth and Montrose's Aspen Smith was seventh.

Norris won the 100 in 12.18 seconds, with Tangi Smith second at 12.47. The Lady Meteors also had the seventh- and eighth-place finishers with Gracie Dalton and Aspen Smith.

In the pole vault, Norris cleared 11-6 to finish second to another record-setter, Western Wayne's Ella Dougher, who went 12-3 to beat the record of 12-0 from three years ago by another Lady Wildcat, Trina Barcarola.

The Montrose girls outscored Wyoming Area, 103 2/3-94, for the team title, clinching it with a win in the final 1600 relay.

"We knew we had a job to do, but I think from the start we knew we would be able to get it done," said Stephanie Summerville, who finished with three gold medals. "We did what each of us needed to do."

Norris supplied all the points for Susquehanna to finish 10th with 28. Blue Ridge was 12th with 18, Elk Lake 14th with 14 and Mountain View 15th with 10.

Summerville, who also won the 400, and Tangi Smith were both part of Montrose winning both the 400 and 1600 relays. Summerville led off each and Tangi Smith anchored both.

Chloe Diaz won the 100 hurdles in 15.25, took third in the 300 hurdles and was on the 1600 relay win.

"I really needed to work on keeping my speed and beating them to the first hurdle," Diaz said of her 100 hurdles victory, "and then staying consistent throughout the whole race."

Alexis Hawley won the discus with a throw of 111-5.

Dalton and Aspen Smith were the other members of the 400 relay team while Katie Diaz completed the 1600 relay lineup.

Chloe Diaz and Katie Diaz were also part of a three-way tie in the high jump.

Forest City's Rachel Korty, running for Carbondale as part of a cooperative sponsorship of the sport, won the 800 in 2:21.03, preventing Wyoming Area's Madelyn Keating from completing the maximum four gold medals.

Her sister, Kate Korty, met state standards in both the 1600 and 3200 while finishing second. Elk Lake's Krista Jones also qualified while finishing third in the 1600.

Heath Bowker and Gerald Welsted led Blue Ridge to a seventh-place finish in boys with 36 points.

Wyoming Area outscored Mid Valley, 141 ½-119 ½, for the team title.

Montrose was 12th with 17 points, Elk Lake 17th with six, Mountain View 18th with five and Susquehanna 19th with one.

Bowker won the 400 in 51.54 seconds and anchored the winning 1600 relay.

Welsted was one of a District 2 record seven state qualifiers in the 100 where he finished sixth. He was also third in the 200.

Caeden Bowker and Jacob Birtch kept Blue Ridge in contention, but in sixth place through the midway point in the 1600 relay when Welsted ran the fastest third leg in the field and Heath Bowker followed it with the fastest anchor leg.

With so many strong finishes by county athletes, the remaining district point-scorers will be recapped in the next edition of the Susquehanna County Transcript.

WEEK IN REVIEW

Blue Ridge defeated Dallas in three sets Thursday in the District 1-2-11 Class 2A Subregional boys' volleyball quarterfinals.

The Raiders won by set scores of 25-19, 27-25, 25-15.

Connor Cranage led the way with 21 kills, 14 digs and five blocks.

Carson Gallagher had 32 assists and four blocks. Aiden Glasgow had 16 digs. Nick Laude served up four aces.

Forest City went to the Philadelphia suburbs to face top-seeded Christopher Dock Mennonite and was swept, 25-6, 25-6, 25-10.

In softball, Elk Lake completed an unbeaten run through the Lackawanna League Division 4 season with routs on consecutive days.

The Lady Warriors defeated Mountain View, 15-0, then downed Susquehanna, 21-0, Wednesday.

Elk Lake ran its overall winning streak to six games in which it has outscored opponents, 90-5.

Final division standings: Elk Lake 12-0; Lackawanna Trail 8-4; Blue Ridge 7-5; Forest City 6-6; Mountain View 5-7; Montrose 3-9, Susquehanna 1-11.

In baseball, Lackawanna Trail won road games on back-to-back days to clinch the Lackawanna Division 4 title.

The Lions defeated Susquehanna, 9-2, then shut out Susquehanna, 3-0, Wednesday.

Final division standings: Lackawanna Trail 10-2; Blue Ridge 8-4; Elk Lake 8-4; Mountain View 7-5; Montrose 6-6; Susquehanna 2-10; Forest City 1-11.

COLLEGE CORNER

University of Pennsylvania sprinter/hurdler Skyla Wilson has qualified for the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Outdoor Track and Field East Region Preliminaries in three events.

The Susquehanna graduate will compete in the 100-meter hurdles, 400 hurdles and 1600 relay this week at Indiana University. Her best time in the 100 hurdles in 13.45, in the 400 hurdles is 58.61 and the relay team has posted a 3:37.10.

THE WEEK AHEAD

Forest City (1-11) is at Susquehanna (3-13) Wednesday in a District 2 Class A baseball semifinal to see which team will face top-seeded MMI Prep (5-14) in the championship game Tuesday, May 31.

Montrose was scheduled to play at second-seeded Scranton Prep Monday and would have needed an upset to advance to Wednesday's District 2 Class 3A semifinal at the winner of the Dunmore-Nanticoke game.

The final is scheduled for Tuesday, May 31.

The winner of the quarterfinal that was scheduled between Elk Lake and Blue Ridge Tuesday will travel to play top-seed and defending champion Riverside in Thursday's District 2 Class 2A semifinals.

Mountain View would have needed an upset Tuesday at Lackawanna Trail to get into a Thursday matchup with the Holy Cross-Old Forge winner.

In softball, top-seeded Elk Lake will host the winner of Monday's Lakeland-Montrose game in a Wednesday semifinal in District 2 Class 2A.

The winner will face the Holy Cross-Carbondale winner in the Tuesday, May 31 championship game.

The District 2 Class A semifinals are scheduled for Thursday and will include the Blue Ridge-Mountain View winner playing at top-seeded Lackawanna Trail.

Blue Ridge was scheduled to play MMI Prep Tuesday with the winner heading to Old Forge Thursday in the other semifinal.

In boys' volleyball, Blue Ridge will be playing in the District 1-2-11 Class 2A Subregional finals doubleheader Thursday.

The doubleheader is tentatively scheduled for Wilkes University.

Depending on the outcome of Tuesday's semifinal match with Southern Lehigh, Blue Ridge will either be playing for the district title or will be in the match to determine the subregional's third and final state qualifier.

The opponent will be either Berwick or Christopher Dock Mennonite, which were scheduled to play in the other Tuesday doubleheader.

In track and field, the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Championships are scheduled for Friday and Saturday at Shippensburg University.

Field events are split among four sessions, scheduled for 9:00am and 12:30pm, Friday and Saturday.

There are some alterations in the track format this year.

The 1600-meter run will be contested Friday at 9 a.m. with Class 2A girls competing first and two Susquehanna County athletes in contention for the first set of medals. Kate Korty is the fifth seed and Elk Lake's Jones is eighth.

Otherwise, Friday on the track is strictly qualifying. All Saturday action is finals only.

The semifinal step in sprints has been eliminated with just one round of qualifying to reach the finals, rather than two.

Montrose's Tangi Smith is seeded second to Norris in the 100 and fifth in the 200.

The Lady Meteors also have Chloe Diaz seeded third in the 100 hurdles and both the 400 and 1600 relays team seeded fourth.

Rachel Korty is seeded fourth in the 800 and Kate Korty is seeded fourth in the 3200.

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.