Sports

SCRANTON – Elk Lake's Gianna Tewksbury won the shot put and finished second in the discus Wednesday at Memorial Stadium to lead Susquehanna County individual performances in the Robert Spagna Lackawanna Track Conference championship meet.

Kate Korty, a Forest City student who runs for Carbondale as part of a cooperative sponsorship of the sport, also earned a gold medal, winning the 800-meter run.

Mountain View's Jacob Ficarro led the boys with a silver medal in the triple jump, along with two other finishes in the top eight.

The top eight in each event scored points for their teams.

Montrose had the top team finishes, placing third in Class 2A in the girls' standings and seventh in the Class 2A boys' standings.

Tewksbury pulled out the shot put win in her final attempt with a throw of 34-4¾ to lead three county girls in the top five in the event.

Individual places were determined with all athletes, Class 3A and 2A together, and Tewksbury needed that final effort to get past Delaware Valley's Rainna Carr and Caterina Catizone, who were 1-2 to that point.

Katie McGlynn was also ahead of Tewksbury going into the last attempt and came up with her best effort then as well, but settled for fourth at 33-5½.

Montrose's Anna Tillotson took fifth.

Korty won the 800 in 2:14.34, finishing nearly six seconds ahead of Reese Morgan from Abington Heights and setting a meet record in the process. She broke the mark of 2:14.96 set by Katie Dammer from Abington Heights in 2018 on her way to a career at Georgetown.

Montrose's Sadie Jones had one of the top all-around performances to lead the Montrose girls to 46 points and third place behind Lakeland's 71 and Western Wayne's 53½.

Jones was second in both the triple jump with 37-6½ and the javelin with 110-7. She added a fourth-place finish in the 200 and was part of a fifth-place relay finish.

It took a meet record of 38-4 by Tomara Seid from Abington Heights to beat Jones in the triple jump.

Avery Kerr was fourth in the 1600, Carly Frey was fifth in the 400, Erin Tillotson was seventh in the discus and Anna Tillotson added an eighth in the discus to her fifth in the shot put.

The Lady Meteors were fifth in both the 400 and 1600 relays.

Tewksbury and McGlynn accounted for all the scoring that allowed Elk Lake to finish fifth with 23 points.

Korty's win provided the only scoring for Carbondale, which was sixth in Class 2A with 10 points.

Susquehanna was ninth with three points and Mountain View tied for 11th with one.

Kiera Burke was eighth in the 400 for Susquehanna, which was seventh in the 1600 relay.

Mountain View's point came with an eighth-place finish in the 400 relay.

Blue Ridge did not score, missing by one place by taking ninth in the 1600 relay and with Emily Gorham in the 400.

Ficarro's triple jump of 42-9 led the individual boys' efforts. He was seventh in the long jump and eighth in the 200.

Dunmore won the Class 2A boys' title with 82 points. Mid Valley was second with 54½.

Montrose was seventh with 25 points, Susquehanna eighth with 21 and Mountain View 10th with 18.

The Meteors took third in the 400 relay in 44.14.

Nicolo Christian was fourth in the 400 and fifth in the 200.

Lorenzo Christian added a fourth in the 3200 and Max Kuwaye took fifth in the long jump and eighth in the 100.

Chance Davis led the way for Susquehanna with two bronze medals, a long jump of 20-4 and a high jump of 6-0.

Maxx Kelly was fifth in the 1600, Matt Schell sixth in the 800, Liam Dooley eighth in the javelin and Zakkery Ace eighth in the 400.

The Sabers competed for the first time without Weston Yannone, one of the leaders of the team's LTC Division 4 title, who transferred to Dunmore earlier in the week, bringing an end to his track and field season.

In addition to Ficarro's three events, Mountain View got a fourth-place finish from Michael Beach in the 1600 and a seventh-place finish from Sean Larkin.

Blue Ridge and Elk Lake did not score.

The top Blue Ridge finishes were 12th by Nick Marvin in the 110 high hurdles and Nicholas Smith in the javelin.

Elk Lake's best finish was 12th by Phillip Petersen in the discus.

Abington Heights, coached by Susquehanna graduate Frank Passetti, won both Class 3A titles. The Lady Comets beat Delaware Valley, 134-77½, and the Comets outscored Wallenpaupack, 69-59.

WEEK IN REVIEW

Elk Lake captured Lackawanna League Division 3 baseball and softball titles with a week still remaining in the regular season.

The Warriors improved to 12-1 in the division and ended the week with a 15-4 overall record.

Elk Lake clinched at least a tie for first place with a 7-3 victory over Susquehanna May 5, then assured itself of an outright title with a 2-1 win at Carbondale Wednesday. Dunmore topped Elk Lake, 2-1, in a non-league game Thursday.

Noah Gesford was 4-for-4 with two RBI against Susquehanna.

Winning pitcher Brayden McMicken went 2-for-3 with a double and two RBI. He struck out 11 while allowing just an unearned run on four hits and three walks in six innings.

Elk Lake needed nine innings to lock down the title.

Logan Ayotte led off the top of the ninth with a walk, took second on a groundout and stole third, drawing the scoring error that allowed him to score.

Dawson Sherman pitched the first 7 1/3 innings, striking out 10 while limiting the Chargers to a run on five hits and a walk.

Brayden Miller took over and struck out four of the six batters he faced. He came on with a runner in scoring position and got two outs. After issuing a lead-off walk in the bottom of the ninth, he struck out three straight to end the game.

The Warriors held on for the division title despite Mountain View inning two more games to run its overall winning streak to eight and improve to 9-3 in the division. The Eagles won at Lackawanna Trail, 8-2, Wednesday and beat Forest City, 8-3, the next day.

In softball, Elk Lake extended its winning streak to 14 games, improving to 13-0 in the division.

The Lady Warriors shut out Susquehanna, 12-0, May 5 to secure the championship, then added a 14-0 rout at Carbondale Wednesday. Both wins came in five innings.

Leah Traver hit two home runs and winning pitcher Marissa Horn added one against Susquehanna.

Traver was 3-for-3 with three runs and three RBI.

Horn tossed a one-hitter with eight strikeouts and a walk. She also had a double and drove in four runs.

Lauren Huyck had the only Susquehanna hit.

Horn again struck out eight in a one-hit shutout, this time not allowing a walk.

Aleece Greenley hit a grand slam in the second inning to help Elk Lake score eight runs and take a 10-0 lead.

Traver again went 3-for-3. She scored three times.

The Montrose girls won twice, making it three in a row and six wins in their last seven. They are 10-3 in the division and 11-6 overall.

THE WEEK AHEAD

The District 2 Class 2A boys' volleyball quarterfinals are set for Thursday.

Official pairings were not available at presstime, but Blue Ridge had qualified and appeared most likely to end up as the fifth seed. The most likely opener was shaping up as a trip to fourth-place Berwick for a meeting of 11-5 teams.

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.

Elk Lake won its last 11 games in April with Marissa Horn in the circle throwing every pitch.

Horn also served as the team's leadoff hitter in every game, getting hits in all but one during that streak, which sent the team on its way to the Lackawanna League Division 3 softball title that it secured last week.

During the month, Horn kept the Lady Warriors rolling by tossing a no-hitter, four one-hitters and a pair of two-hitters.

For that effort, Horn has been selected as the Susquehanna County Transcript Athlete of the Month for April.

Horn, who emerged as a second-team Class 2A all-state pitcher last season, continued that success into this season while also leading the team in many offensive categories.

"I usually practice 50-50, both hitting and pitching," said Horn, who started playing softball when she was 4 and began concentrating on her pitching as a 12-year-old preparing for her travel ball season. "I really take both seriously."

It shows.

Horn closed out the month with eight extra-base hits in the last four games. During the 11 games after a 10-0 loss to Tunkhannock to begin the month, Horn was 18-for-33 with seven doubles, two triples, three home runs and 16 RBI.

Horn struck out 116 and walked 27 in 60 innings during those 11 games, posting a 1.28 earned run average. She threw a five-inning, no-hitter May 9 against Lackawanna Trail and later in the month put together back-to-back games in which she struck out 15 in a one-hitter and fanned 16 in a two-hitter.

Elk Lake has won four straight District 2 titles and Horn points to getting the "five-peat" as the team's primary remaining goal. She credits offseason work, led by the upperclassmen, for keeping the Lady Warriors dominant through recent years.

During the winter, Horn was also prominent in helping the Lady Warriors win a Lackawanna League Division 4 title and advance to the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association state tournament with a district runner-up performance.

Marissa is the daughter of Jason and Jen Horn of Springville.