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Former WB official suspended from practicing law to return to City Hall

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Shredding the competition: Meyers wins regional STEM contest

<p>BETHLEHEM &#8212; It didn&#8217;t take long for history to be made for the Class 3A Northeast Regional Tournament.</p><p>For the first time in decades, and perhaps the first time ever, the tournament will be a one-day event.</p><p>That&#8217;s because wintry weather unexpectedly pounded the Lehigh Valley on Friday and brought power outages, road closures and plenty of other problems.</p><p>Parents and wrestlers from all over District 2 and District 12 were left scrambling Friday afternoon due to the weather.</p><p>With a transformer blowing out in one of the business districts of Bethlehem, several hotels where participants were slated to stay were without power.</p><p>That meant those who were trying to check-in couldn&#8217;t. Before the call was made to postpone the event about an hour before the schedule weigh-in, parents and wrestlers were worried they wouldn&#8217;t have a place to stay for the night.</p><p>Many teams, including West Scranton, left hotels without power and went to another place further away from Liberty High School to get athletes a better night&#8217;s rest at an establishment with power and heat.</p><p>The revised schedule now has the tournament running straight through Saturday without any breaks. Action will start at 9 a.m. with the preliminary round and won&#8217;t finish until the medal rounds are over. That round is expected to start at 7 p.m.</p><p>The wait won&#8217;t be a problem for Pittston Area&#8217;s Ryan Lombardo, who waited his entire career to take part in the Northeast Regional Tournament.</p><p>So one more day won&#8217;t matter.</p><p>The senior arrived to Liberty High School on Friday making the trek from Pittston only to find out that the tournament was postponed.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve waited three years to get down here, so I&#8217;m ready to go,&#8221; said the 126-pound Lombardo, who qualified for regionals last year but had to withdraw because of an injury. &#8220;I&#8217;m pretty anxious to finally get out there on the mat and make weight and get going.&#8221;</p><p>Even though Lombardo made it to the Lehigh Valley with his family and teammate Jake Rutkoski, the Patriots&#8217; heavyweight, head coach Dave Krantz was stuck on the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike and likely would have missed Lombardo&#8217;s first career match in regionals if the tourney still happened on Friday.</p><p>That would have left his dad, Mike, and Rutkoski in his corner. It would have worked just fine, but now his nerves will be more calm.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m a little bit more relieved that everything is going to be put in place,&#8221; Lombardo said. &#8220;And we have time to be situated if we need anything.&#8221;</p><p>The Patriots didn&#8217;t have a great record this season. In fact, they finished winless in Division 1 of the Wyoming Valley Conference for the second straight campaign. They started to get some momentum in the second half of the season and dressed four medalists at districts last season, including Lombardo&#8217;s fourth-place showing.</p><p>&#8220;We may not have had the best season but we have a great group of characters that kept everyone going,&#8221; Lombardo said.</p><p>Three wins today for Lombardo will make the season a success for the Patriots because it would mean a berth in the state tournament, every coach&#8217;s ultimate goal before the campaign begins.</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Dave Rosengrant</p><p>For Times Leader</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>Revised Class 3A Northeast Regional Schedule</strong></p><p>(at Liberty H.S., Bethlehem)</p><p>8 a.m., doors open with admission $10 for adults and $5 students</p><p>9 a.m., preliminary round</p><p>11 a.m., quarterfinals</p><p>1 p.m., first round consolations</p><p>2 p.m., second round consolations</p><p>3:30 p.m. semifinals and third round consolations</p><p>5:30 p.m., consolation semifinals</p><p>7 p.m., fifth-place, third-place and championship round</p><p>At stake: The top four in each weight advance to the PIAA Championships March 8-10 at Giant Center in Hershey</p></factboxMeta></div>

Regional wrestling: Class 3A tournament postponed to Saturday