Section 2 Tue POST Sunday, December 7, 2003 Hl Sports HM Church HW School HM Calendar Sports Wrestling Preview Knights face new challenges Mounts aim for respectability By KEVIN KAZOKAS “Our main goal is to make district duals,” said Post Correspondent Ropietski, whose team went 6-20 last season, his first on the job. “At least .500 or better we want to be. That’s a victory for us for how young we are. Then we can build off that.” The Mountaineers will depend on a quartet of wrestlers to lead the way. Senior A.J. Musto placed fourth at districts last season and record- ed 25 wins. He's projected to wrestle at 103 pounds. Senior Morgan Anderson will compete at 160. He registered more than 20 wins last year. His coach would like to see him reach 30 this year and possibly make a trip to states. See DALLAS, pg 10 DALLAS TWP. — When Mike Ropietski con- siders the future of the Dallas wrestling pro- gram, he sees plenty of promise. But as his team enters the 2003-04 season, the second-year Mountaineers coach speaks only of modest goals. That's because the team will feature nine sophomores in its starting lineup. The youth and lack of experience could pose challenges for Dal- las as it compete against traditional wrestling su- perpowers such as Berwick, Pittston Area and Lake-Lehman in the fierce Wyoming Valley Con- ference West Division. astic Roundup GIRLS BASKETBALL Bishop Hannan 51, Lake-Lehman 40 DEC. 3 — Sheree Horvath paced Lake-Lehman with 15 points. Tunkhannock 55, Mountain View 44 DEC. 3 — Jessica Wildrick scored 18 points and Krista Flaherty added 11 as Tunkhannock defeated Moun- tain View. O’Reilly 45, Nativity BVM 43 DEC. 2 — Janelle Zabresky of Bish- op O'Reilly scored 14 points and was named the tournament MVP as the eenswomen defeated Nativity 45-43 on Tuesday in the cham- pionship game of the Plymouth Ro- tary Tournament. Meyers 58, Tunkhannock 47 DEC. 2 — Jamie Morrison scored 10 points for the Tigers, who fell be- hind 32-13 at the half and never re- covered. Dallas 69, Seminary 30 DEC. 1 — Dallas took a 21-point lead after the first quarter and cruised to its second victory. Shannon Thomas led Dallas with 17 points followed by Jackie Hard- wick with 14 and Rosalyn Wentko with 11. Thomas hit two 3-point ots and Meredith Lacey had one d nine points overall. Janelle Krisulevicz led Seminary (0-1) with 12 points. Lake-Lehman 39, Mountain View 33 DEC. 1 — Kika Nockemann scored 10 points in leading Lake-Lehman to a victory. Sheree Horvath and Jessica Turak added six points apiece for the Black Knights, who broke a tie after three quarters by outscoring Mountain View 16-10 in the final period. Bishop O’Reilly 48, Stroudsburg 23 PLYMOUTH -— Erin Chesnavich and Janelle Zabresky combined for 32 points as Bishop O'Reilly routed Stroudsburg in the third-place game of the Lady Spartan Tip-Off Tourna- ment at Wyoming Valley West High School. Zabresky made six field goals and shot 3-for-4 from the line. Lady Mounts batter 4A champs By JOHN ERZAR For The Post DALLAS — Aside from one glitch handling the Comets’ press and a couple of misses on high-percentage shots, the Dallas Mountaineers completely dominated Abington Heights, eight-time District 2 Class 4A champions, last Tuesday while storming to a 72-39 thrashing. “We played well and executed,” said Dallas ‘coach Joe Noon. “(Abington) has only one of their girls back from last year, but they are a well-coached team and a good team.” Dallas’ senior starting lineup, all four-year starters, ex- ploited Abington’s inexperience early and continued to do so throughout the game. Meredith Lacey celebrated her 18th birthday by dishing out seven assists during the game and doughnuts after it. She helped set the tone with three sharp passes in the game's first two minutes that led to two baskets by Rosalyn Wentko and another by Jackie Hardwick, and a 16-4 lead entering the second quarter. “It’s almost like a sixth sense you can say,” Lacey said. “Most of us have been playing together since third or fourth grade. It’s kind of an instinct that we know what moves we're going to do and which spot we’re going to.” Wentko and Hardwick’s place Tuesday, for the most part, was underneath the basket. Wentko finished with 25 points and Hardwick added 12, and their rebounding led to sec- See MOUNTS, pg 10 Dallas 54, Marion Catholic 53 DALLAS — Shannon Thomas red 14 points, Rosalyn Wentko had and Cory Patton 10 as the Moun- taineers nipped the Fillies, last sea- son’s Class A state-runnerup. Lauren Patton hit two 3-pointers and scored 10 points; Jackie Hard- wick added seven points and Ash- leigh King hit for six. BOYS BASKETBALL Bishop O’Hara 55, Dallas 53 By KEVIN KAZOKAS Post Correspondent LEHMAN TWP. — It’s a program distin- guished by a proud tradition. But after losing seven starters from last year’s Class 2A district duals championship team to graduation, the Lake-Lehman Black Knights wrestling team will take a cautiously optimistic approach to the 2003-04 season. “Obviously, we have to fill a lot of holes,” said coach Phil Lipski, who guided his squad to the PIAA state quarterfinals in team duals competi- tion last year. The Black Knights, winners of the District 2 2A title 12 of the last 14 seasons, saw nine seniors from last year’s club graduate. As a FOR THE POST/S. JOHN WILKIN Jackie Hardwick drove through a horde of Abington Heights defenders in last week's game, result, this year’s team will look to a host of young wrestlers to step up. “Our biggest concern is going to be the lower weights,” said Lipski, whose projected lineup features no wrestler above the sophomore level in the bottom four weight classes. Freshman Art Spencer will likely wrestle at 103 pounds. Lipski projected sophomore Tim Ford to start at 112, freshman Jared Kopetchne at 119 and sopho- more Steve Schwartz at 125. Despite the lack of varsity experience in many of Lake-Lehman’s starters, several veteran team members expressed confidence that the club can remain powerful. See LEHMAN, pg 10 Rec group mulls field purchase By RONALD BARTIZEK Post Staff Back Mountain Recreation Inc. is looking at alternative sites to its Lehman Township land for baseball fields, including the area that has been used by Back Mountain Baseball for 40 years and is owned by Dallas School District. Unanticipated excavation costs for the Lehman land led the group to con- sider other spots. “All options are still on the table,” said Brian Grove, Execu- tive Director of the rec group, includ- ing building fields as originally planned at the 130-acre regional park complex. Back Mountain Baseball Inc., which operates Little League baseball and softball programs, has tried in the past to purchase the school fields, but their offers have been rebuffed. Grove said the boards of the two or- ganizations have been working togeth- er on the site search, but at this point BMT Recreation will make any pur- chase. “Our intention is to use BMT Rec funds to do that,” he said. “I can tell you that Back Mountain Rec is going to make an offer,” said Jack Snyder, president of BMT Base- ball, although he wasn’t sure how much it would be for. Snyder said the last time he talked with the school board about the approximately 12 acres, the asking price was $1.2 mil- lion. The land, which is in Dallas Town- ship, is zoned S-1, with use allowed for one- and two-family homes, agricul ture, public and semi-public facilities (except hospitals and nursing homes) and utility firms. Bruce Goeringer, who took a seat on the school board last week, favors keeping the fields where they are. He fears that if the fields are moved to Lehman, some families will decide that is too far to travel for frequent games and practices. “I think theyre in an ideal location now,” he said. But Goeringer said the needs of the baseball league and school district would have to be balanced, since it would be unwise to dispose of land that might be useful in the future for school facilities. If other options don’t pan out, the fields will still be built in Lehman, both Grove and Snyder said. “They’re still committed if need be for us to go out there,” said Snyder. The latest plan for the Lehman land shows seven baseball fields, four of DEC. 3 — Robbie Myers had a game-high 20 points for Dallas, which gave up a 28-22 halftime lead. Chris Higdon scored nine points, and Ben Thomas hit two 3-pointers. GAR 88, Lehman 42 DEC. 2 — Alan Sheridan knocked down five 3-pointers and finished with 15 points for Lehman. Team- mate Kevin Racemus scored 15, in- cluding three 3-pointers. Meyers 65, Dallas 49 NOV. 29 — Jaron George scored 14 points to lead Meyers to a 65-49 victo- ry over Dallas in a boys high school asketball exhibition game Saturday. att Wilson made two three-point ots for Dallas and led the Moun- See ROUNDUP, pg 10 Wrestlers place at Y tourney November. Wrestlers from Back Mountain Wrestling Club participated in the YMCA Turkey Classic in From left, first row: Connor Martinez, Cole Dixon (3rd Place, PeeWee 55), Mark Michno (1st Place, Bantam 65), Jimmy Caffrey (4th Place, Bantam 65), Aidan Martinez (4th Place, PeeWee 55). Back row: Adam Goeringer (1st place Midget 95), Keith Sulewski, James Rosencrans, Brian DeLuca, Billy Dixon. them regulation Little League size and one for tee-ball. Two others are multi- purpose fields that can accommodate both baseball and soccer. Emily Foran named conference all-academic AMHERST, MA — Emily Foran, a junior who plays for the Amherst Col- lege women’s golf team (Dallas, PA/Wyoming Seminary), has been named to the New England Small Col- lege Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Fall All-Academic Team. Members of the team must be starters or key reserves on an officially sponsored varsity team with a grade point average of at least 3.35, or equiv- alent.
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