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Lottery News for Thursday, May 18

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Northwest Area votes to raise taxes

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Wyoming Seminary&#8217;s annual senior dinner was held on Thursday night.</p><p>The Blue Knights&#8217; doubles team of Eamon Gibbons and Andrew Schukraft weren&#8217;t really worried about being late for the event, but they sure left the Kirby Park Tennis Courts with plenty of time before the festivities, and with gold medals.</p><p>Gibbons and Schukraft needed only about 45 minutes to win their first gold medal in three tries as they defeated Scranton Prep&#8217;s Jack Habeeb and Rhys Kelly 6-1, 6-1 in the District 2 Class 2A final.</p><p>&#8220;They put up a good fight there. They&#8217;re really solid tennis players. We just came out ready to play,&#8221; Gibbons said.</p><p>In Class 3A, Crestwood&#8217;s doubles team of Nick Andrews and Sachin Patel made a great run to the final before settling for the silver medals.</p><p>The 3A champs, Abington Heights&#8217; Timmy Christman and Brian Ostrowski join the Blue Knights in the PIAA Championships on May 26.</p><p>Before then, the whole Sem team will play in the state quarterfinals today at 9:30 a.m. against the District 7 third-place finisher Quaker Valley at the Hershey Racquet Club.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m hoping we pull out a match and make it to the semifinals,&#8221; Schukraft said. &#8220;Above all, you&#8217;re playing some really good competition down there so I just want to get better as a player. And I&#8217;m sure the team can as well. I think we&#8217;re very focused. A lot of guys have put in a lot of time and effort. We don&#8217;t wanna miss the opportunity to take advantage of that.&#8221;</p><p>The Blue Knights made quick work of Prep in the finals, but they ran into trouble in the second set of their semifinal against Holy Cross&#8217; Jim Tressler and Logan Gregory. After winning the first set, 6-1, Gibbons and Schukraft held off their opponents for a 7-5 second-set win to reach the finals for the first time.</p><p>&#8220;I think we lost focus a little bit and they started to play better using some different strategies,&#8221; Schukraft said. &#8220;It definitely makes us understand that we need to play 10 times harder than we did in that second set to pull out the final match. So it definitely played into our mindset going into the final.&#8221;</p><p>Crestwood&#8217;s unseeded duo &#8211; and their unorthodox style of play &#8211; made an impressive run to the finals and nearly pulled off the biggest upset of the tournament in many years.</p><p>On the first day of the tournament, the Comets went through the sixth and third seeds. In Thursday&#8217;s semifinal against Delaware Valley&#8217;s second seed of Tomas Reese and Ivan Verobyev, Crestwood won in straight sets 6-1, 6-3.</p><p>Then in the final after losing the first set to the top seed, Abington Heights&#8217; Timmy Christman and Brian Ostrowski and being down 5-1 in the second set on the brink of elimination, Andrews and Patel went on a run of winning seven of the next eight games to win the second set 7-6 in a 7-5 tiebreak. They even took a 1-0 lead in the third set before eventually falling 6-2.</p><p>&#8220;We knew we just had to change up our game,&#8221; Patel said about being in a hole in the second set. &#8220;We had to play more ground strokes, hitting down the line, a couple of them in the alley. And me and Nick fought back in it.&#8221;</p><p>But ground strokes and hitting down the line aren&#8217;t part of the team&#8217;s normal game plan.</p><p>Only playing tennis for two years, Andrews and Patel had problems with ground strokes when they first started playing so they took a different path. Instead of smashing the ball and trying to win that way, they always lob. With that style, they frustrated opponents in every match of the tournament, but it worked.</p><p>&#8220;We pretty much came in and wanted to win. We hate losing and just played the lob game&#8221; Andrews said. &#8220;A lot of people don&#8217;t like that. It&#8217;s slowing the game down a little bit, but it worked for us. &#8230;Unfortunately we didn&#8217;t come back with the gold, but silver&#8217;s pretty good for two people who played tennis two years in their lives.&#8221;</p><p><ins>For other sports stories, <a href="https://www.timesleader.com/category/sports" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">click here</a>.</ins></p><p><strong>District 2 Tennis Doubles Championships</strong></p><p><strong>Class 2A</strong></p><p><strong>Finals</strong></p><p>Eamon Gibbons/Andrew Schukraft (Wyoming Seminary) d. Jack Habeeb/Rhys Kelly (Scranton Prep) 6-1, 6-1</p><p><strong>Semifinals</strong></p><p>Gibbons/Schukraft d. Jim Tressler/Logan Gregory (Holy Cross) 6-1, 7-5</p><p>Habeeb/Kelly d. Michael Kim/Andrew Kim (Wyoming Seminary) 6-2, 6-2</p><p><strong>Class 3A</strong></p><p><strong>Finals</strong></p><p>Timmy Christman/Brian Ostrowski (Abington Heights) d. Nick Andrews/Sachin Patel (Crestwood) 6-1, 6-7 (5-7), 6-2</p><p><strong>Semifinals</strong></p><p>Christman/Ostrowski d. Lukas Radulski/Ty Jackson (Williamsport) 6-1, 6-3</p><p>Andrews/Patel d. Tomas Reese/Ivan Verobyev (Delaware Valley) 7-5, 6-1</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Wyoming Seminary&#8217;s Eamon Gibbons stands at the net as teammate Andrew Schukraft returns a serve against Holy Cross in a District 2 Class 2A boys doubles tennis semifinal at Kirby Park on Thursday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web1_TTL051917DistrictTennisDoubles_1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Wyoming Seminary&#8217;s Eamon Gibbons stands at the net as teammate Andrew Schukraft returns a serve against Holy Cross in a District 2 Class 2A boys doubles tennis semifinal at Kirby Park on Thursday. </caption0><photoCredit0>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web1_TTL051917DistrictTennisDoubles_3.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Crestwood&#8217;s Sachin Patel stands at the net as teammate Nick Andrews returns a serve against Abington Heights in the Class 3A semifinals. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web1_TTL051917DistrictTennisDoubles_3.jpg</photo1><caption1>Crestwood&#8217;s Sachin Patel stands at the net as teammate Nick Andrews returns a serve against Abington Heights in the Class 3A semifinals. </caption1><photoCredit1>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web1_TTL051917DistrictTennisDoubles_4.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Crestwood&#8217;s Nick Andrews returns a serve against Delaware Valley. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web1_TTL051917DistrictTennisDoubles_4.jpg</photo2><caption2>Crestwood&#8217;s Nick Andrews returns a serve against Delaware Valley. </caption2><photoCredit2>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web1_TTL051917DistrictTennisDoubles_5.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Wyoming Seminary&#8217;s Michael Kim returns the ball against Scranton Prep as his brother Andrew stands ready. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web1_TTL051917DistrictTennisDoubles_5.jpg</photo3><caption3>Wyoming Seminary&#8217;s Michael Kim returns the ball against Scranton Prep as his brother Andrew stands ready. </caption3><photoCredit3>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit3></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web1_TTL051917DistrictTennisDoubles_2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Wyoming Seminary&#8217;s Andrew Schukraft, left, and Eamon Gibbons celebrate a point against Holy Cross. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo4>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/web1_TTL051917DistrictTennisDoubles_2.jpg</photo4><caption4>Wyoming Seminary&#8217;s Andrew Schukraft, left, and Eamon Gibbons celebrate a point against Holy Cross. </caption4><photoCredit4>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit4></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Seminary&#8217;s Gibbons, Schukraft win 1st district doubles title</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Dave Rosengrant</p><p>For Times Leader</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Times Leader sports at 570-829-7143 or on Twitter @tlsports.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

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Wyoming Seminary’s Eamon Gibbons, Andrew Schukraft win District 2 doubles title