The running of the 46th annual Cliff Robbins Sr. Invitational at Misericordia University’s Letterkenny Field, the last four football games of the weekend and a variety of sports make for a busy Saturday schedule around District 2.
The Robbins, the annual season-opening cross country race for many, will go on, but with modifications forced by Wednesday’s storms.
Coaches were informed Friday afternoon that there is no way to safely use the courses in their original 5K (3.1 mile) varsity and 3K junior high layouts because of areas that are too wet to hold up to the competition.
The varsity race has been shortened to 4K – just under 2½ miles. The junior high race will be 2.56K – a little more than 1½ miles.
A field of about 25 varsity teams – 11 from the Wyoming Valley Conference, 9 from the Lackawanna League and 5 from outside District 2 – is expected. Counting junior high entries, a total of 618 runners were preregistered for the four races.
The schedule calls for junior high girls to run at 9:30, followed by junior high boys at 10:10, varsity girls at 10:45 and varsity boys at 11:35.
The football schedule is highlighted by Wyoming Area at Wilkes-Barre Area, two teams coming off opening wins, playing at 2 p.m. at Wyoming Valley West’s Spartan Stadium, Wilkes-Barre Area’s temporary home field for this season.
In 1 p.m. games, Honesdale is at Abington Heights, Carbondale is at Holy Cross and Hanover Area is at Susquehanna.
With boys and girls soccer, field hockey, girls volleyball and boys and girls cross country all allowed to open competition Friday, joining golf, girls tennis and football, which were already underway, there is plenty of variety on the schedule.
The field hockey schedule includes state-ranked Wyoming Area opening at Lewisburg at 11 a.m.
The boys soccer schedule includes Lake-Lehman playing in the Montoursville Tournament, Lakeland at Valley View, Holy Cross at Holy Redeemer and Crestwood at Abington Heights.
In girls soccer, Lake-Lehman is in the Central Columbia Tournament and Wyoming Valley West is in the Montoursville Tournament. Wallenpaupack is at Western Wayne in a 10 a.m. game. Holy Cross at Holy Redeemer is among the other games scheduled.
Much of the action in other sports is non-league, but that is not the case in girls volleyball, which moved immediately into league competition on Opening Day, Friday.
Dunmore is at Western Wayne in a match between teams expected to contend for the Lackawanna League title.
