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PIAA FOOTBALL: Lackawanna Trail moves to Class A title game; Scranton Prep loses

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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; The aptly-named Sawyer recalled a certain famous Mississippi River rafter with a friend called Huck, as he stood on a wide, shallow platform while propelling forward with a long paddle. Except Sawyer was his first name, the water was in a pool, and the raft-like boat was made of cardboard.</p><p>&#8220;I was pretty confident it would hold up,&#8221; Sawyer Koretz said after effortlessly crossing the pool without incident, proving both his own sense of balance and the math expertise of his fellow teammates who designed the boat out of the improbable material.</p><p>They were one of three teams participating in high school math teacher Sam Elias&#8217; annual cardboard boat regatta at Kistler Elementary. It&#8217;s an event that both shows off student acumen in calculating complex issues like water displacement (to keep their crafts afloat) and &#8212; almost inevitably &#8212; their shortcomings when they list, buckle or otherwise start sopping up water like a parched patch of desert sand.</p><p>Elias launched the afternoon competition with a quick explanation of safety protocol and paddle best-practices, prompting the petite but eager Kelis Quiller to quip &#8220;Is it going to cause me to spin out?&#8221;</p><p>Elias didn&#8217;t miss a beat.</p><p>&#8220;Only you can cause you to spin out. The paddle won&#8217;t.&#8221;</p><p>Quiller had nothing to fear. She sailed across the pool in a craft proudly bearing the symbol of GAR High School with scarcely a drop getting inside.</p><p>The number of students participating was small this year, Elias said, in part because a teacher who used to bring teams from Coughlin High School had left the district, and in part because students from the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Academy housed at Meyers High School literally sat this one out on the sidelines, watching.</p><p>&#8220;Time got away from us,&#8221; STEM teacher Kieth Eberts confessed afterward. &#8220;Next year, we&#8217;ll compete.&#8221;</p><p>The three boats performed flawlessly in the initial contest, which involves measuring displacement and timing the pool crossing. But there is always some freestyle time where the youngsters, mostly 10th-grade students this year, test the boats beyond their mathematically calculated limits, usually by piling more people in.</p><p>Two others joined Quiller, for example, in the same boat as Ashleigh Ventura sat in the middle and held a cardboard sword and shield sporting the GAR logo. They did get across again, but Ventura conceded she was a bit too afraid of falling into the drink to stand up as originally planned.</p><p>Sawyer and his team were the first to go under, when four piled into the boat. That didn&#8217;t sink it, but when two leaned over the same side at the same time to fill large water guns, a corner dipped below the surface and water swamped the ship. In true teen fashion, the crew stood chest deep in the pool and started squirting the guns anyway.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Brianna Weghorst and Bailey Smallcomb, both sophomores, paddle their cardboard boat across Kistler Elementary&#8217;s pool during Friday&#8217;s cardboard boat regatta. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_TTL120118boat2-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Brianna Weghorst and Bailey Smallcomb, both sophomores, paddle their cardboard boat across Kistler Elementary&#8217;s pool during Friday&#8217;s cardboard boat regatta. </caption0><photoCredit0>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_TTL120118boat3-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Tio Marello raises his hand in victory as Michael Jones paddles the team&#8217;s cardboard boat across the Kistler Elementary pool during Friday&#8217;s cardboard boat regatta. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_TTL120118boat3-1.jpg</photo1><caption1>Tio Marello raises his hand in victory as Michael Jones paddles the team&#8217;s cardboard boat across the Kistler Elementary pool during Friday&#8217;s cardboard boat regatta. </caption1><photoCredit1>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_TTL120118boat1-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Sawyer Koretz and Michael Jones, freshman and sophmore students, sink into the pool at Wilkes-Barre Area&#8217;s Kistler Elementary during Friday&#8217;s annual cardboard boat regatta. Their cardboard boat made it across the pool two times before sinking. High school math teacher Sam Elias is the driving force behind the regatta. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_TTL120118boat1-1.jpg</photo2><caption2>Sawyer Koretz and Michael Jones, freshman and sophmore students, sink into the pool at Wilkes-Barre Area&#8217;s Kistler Elementary during Friday&#8217;s annual cardboard boat regatta. Their cardboard boat made it across the pool two times before sinking. High school math teacher Sam Elias is the driving force behind the regatta. </caption2><photoCredit2>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit2></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>WBA students participate in cardboard boat regatta</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mark Guydish</p><p>mguydish@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Paddling, cardboard and a lot of math for WBA students to stay afloat