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For this paddler, dragon boat capsize not so bad

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Latest Luzerne County hirings announced

Look back to October 2018 and what a milestone it was for Wyoming Valley Conference golfers.For the first time in nearly two decades, five athletes from the conference reached the PIAA Golf Championships.That may have been seen as a peak year by many.Truth is, there is still plenty of room to achieve that number if not eclipse it this year.Four of those golfers are back this year and will be participating in the season-opening Tryba Preseason Tournament on Monday at Fox Hill Country Club.A pair of seniors in Wyoming Seminary&#8217;s Jeremy Callahan and Lake-Lehman&#8217;s Bobby Lugiano along with two sophomores in Dallas&#8217; Logan Paczewski and Hanover Area&#8217;s Kyleen McCance are back and ready for another postseason run.But first, they begin with Monday&#8217;s 18-hole event looking to get off on the right foot and to help their team to the highest possible finish.Paczewski won the individual portion of the event last year becoming the first freshman to claim the title since Brandon Matthews &#8211; now playing professionally &#8211; did so in 2008. Paczewski scored a 69 then won on a playoff hole over teammate Brett Ostroski &#8211; who is now a senior &#8211; and helped the Mountaineers set the record for lowest team score ever at 289.Lugiano placed fourth in last year&#8217;s Tryba five shots off the pace. Martin Cryan, a senior from Holy Redeemer, also finished in the top 10 last year along with Dallas senior Cooper Kelley and Lake-Lehman sophomore Mike Sholtis.Dallas looks to have a legit shot at repeating as champion with three Top 10 finishers from last year returning and Matt Dolan, who took second in the pre-district tournament last year and Freddie Lombardo, who was ninth at pre-districts. Redeemer was second last year and could again be in the same spot.In addition to Cryan, Redeemer returns four athletes who were district qualifiers a year ago and should help the team contend with the Mountaineers on Monday. Juniors Sean Boland, Kip Miller and Matt Williams all participated in districts last year, as did senior teammate Sergei Scaramastro.Crestwood placed third a year ago at the Tryba, but lost four of its six participants from last season to graduation.Keep an eye on Hazleton Area as well. The Cougars, who claimed the Division 2 title last season, return their top four scorers from last year&#8217;s tournament in Joe Rebarchick, Jonathan Joseph, Collin Kusla and Brian Bartel.GIRL POWERBehind the now-graduated Jessica McClellan, who was also a state qualifier last year from MMI Prep, McCance helped continue success for female golfers in the Wyoming Valley Conference.There are very good girls taking to courses this year all over the conference.Lake-Lehman&#8217;s Brooke Martin and Dallas&#8217; Madyson Pendolphi join McCance as sophomores who are also returning district qualifiers.Hazleton Area&#8217;s Grace Babinchak and Marin Dremock are both seniors and have led the Cougars all-girls team the last two seasons.KEEP AN EYE ONA pair of seniors from Class 3A in Pittston Area&#8217;s Nick Scavo and Tunkhannock&#8217;s Coby Gilpin were district qualifiers last year. They can&#8217;t be taken lightly at the Tryba as experience will be key on a hot afternoon.From Class 2A, Wyoming Area senior Cole Coolbaugh, Wyoming Seminary senior Adam Rogers, Berwick senior Wes Arndt and MMI Prep junior Noah Long all return looking to contend at the Tryba and the postseason for their teams.THE WOLFPACKSean McLaughlin was tabbed as the first head coach of the Wilkes-Barre Area Wolfpack late last year. McLaughlin was the coach of Coughlin the previous two seasons.The Wolfpack is expected to have approximately two dozen team members from Meyers, GAR and Coughlin high schools. Last year, the three teams combined to go 5-27 in the regular season. Coughlin finished 11th at the Tryba out of 13 schools that scored, while Meyers and GAR didn&#8217;t have enough participants to score in the event.The Tryba will be the first-ever official regular season competition for the new Wilkes-Barre Area team in any sport.REALIGNMENT&#8230; AGAINFor the second straight year, the Wyoming Valley Conference has gone through a division realignment.Due to the formation of the Wilkes-Barre Area Wolfpack and the losses of Meyers, Coughlin and GAR, shuffling was needed.The biggest change was that the divisions dropped from four divisions to three. Since Meyers and GAR were both Class 2A programs, that left just seven AA programs prompting the higher-ups to bump one of the divisions.The Wolfpack is in the Class 3A Division 1 where they replaced Coughlin and join reigning champion Dallas, Pittston Area and Tunkhannock. Class 3A Division 2 is unchanged with defending titlist Hazleton Area, Crestwood, Nanticoke Area and Wyoming Valley West.The seven teams making up the 2A Division 3 are Division 3 reigning champion Holy Redeemer, Division 4 champ from last year Wyoming Seminary, Berwick, Hanover Area, Lake-Lehman, MMI Prep and Wyoming Area.<style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Dave RosengrantFor Times Leader</bylineMeta></div>

High School Golf: Season swings into action today with Tryba Tournament