In the sports world a hot start can mean the difference in ending a season or making a postseason appearance. The Elizabethtown girls' basketball team is hoping their quick 2-0 start will result in the latter.

The Lady Bears opened their COVID condensed 2020-2021 season on January 8th opposite an Ephrata squad that claimed the Section Two title last season. E-town took the first step to hoisting this year's section title with a 48-42 victory. Ainsley Raybold picked up six of her team high 12 points during a 16-7 first quarter blitz that provided enough cushion for Elizabethtown to post a six-point win. Macy Seaman added nine points and Jade Love-Morris eight in the win.

A few nights later, the Lady Bears cruised past Warwick, 50-28, behind a game high 17 points from Elise Hassinger. E-town controlled all four quarters but did their heavy lifting in the second frame where they outscored the Lady Warriors by 13. Love-Morris backed up Hassinger with 13 points while Raybold netted nine.

SWIMMING

The swimming teams made a splash on January 9th with both the boy's and girls' teams knocking off Lancaster Catholic. The boy's swept four events and all three relays on their way to a 116-32 win while the Lady Bears matched the three relay wins but went one-two-three in just two events in their 130-18 victory.

Gabby Walsh and Morgan Conway fronted the girl's result with two solo wins and two relay wins each. The pair teamed up with Genevieve McDonald and Megan Handshew to claim the 200-medley relay and the 200-freestyle relay. Walsh's solo wins came in the 100-backstroke and the 100-butterfly with Conway taking the 200-IM and the 100-breaststroke.

Brooke Heisey also picked up two individual wins, leading a sweep in the 200 freestyle while also taking the 500 freestyle. Heisey, along with Gabi Dabbs, Stephanie Hall and Lilly Rutkowski, wrapped up the relay, taking the 400 freestyle.

McDonald (50 freestyle) and Hall (100 freestyle) accounted for the final two Lady Bears wins.

Ben Azzalina took the lead for the boy's, matching Walsh and Conway with two solo and two relay wins. His solo work came as part of team sweeps in the 50-freestyle and 100-backstroke while his relay work came in the 200 medley and the 200-freestyle relay. Wyatt Rachael and Sam Azzalina also took part in the 200 medley and the 200-freestyle relay wins with Riley Runnels completing the 200-medley team and Andrew Donahue the 200-freestyle team. Runnels and Donahue claimed a second relay win in the 400-freestyle relay, getting help from Ethan Hall and Donovan Arnold.

Hall and Arnold managed to front solo event wins with Hall taking the 200 freestyle and Arnold the 500-freestyle.

Elizabethtown's final two wins were both top three sweeps with Carter Ketchum topping the 100-butterfly field and Sam Azzalina taking the top spot in the 100-breaststroke.

WRESTLING

The wrestling team is enjoying a fast start that has them sitting atop the Section Two standings along with Garden Spot and Manheim Central. The reason is a 53-15 shellacking of Lebanon on January 12th where the Bears posted nine wins with six coming as a forfeit. Add in a no contest at 113 and E-town claimed nine of the twelve weight classes.

Wyatt Mummau, Ryan Findley, Aiden Robinson, Cade Capello, Hayden Haver and Eli Macfarlane were the six forfeit winners, giving the Bears a quick and easy 36 team points. Nathan Thomas was the only grappler on the mat to win without pinning his opponent, instead posting a 17-1 tech fall over Sam Davenport at 126.

Austin Reitmeyer slipped his pinfall win into the opening period, putting Eddiean Naphtali's shoulders to the mat at 1:59. Bobby Walters picked up the final Elizabethtown win, needing just 29-seconds to dispatch Angel Martinez.

Elizabethtown opened the season a few days earlier with a 48-18 win over Palmyra. The Bears posted another lopsided victory by collecting eight bonus point wins, all the six team point variety. Only three Bears, Jake Rudy, Haver and Ryan Hottenstein, earned easy forfeit wins, the remaining five grapplers had to earn their bonus points on the mat.

Robinson did so in the quickest time, taking care of Mason Bucks in 52-seconds. Walters was up next, topping Dylan Brown at the 1:20 mark of their 172-pound battle. Findlay and Reitmeyer finished their respective matches one second apart with Findlay posting the quicker pinfall, 2:27 to 2:28. Thomas picked up the final win, ending his bout with Nathaniel Foltz in the second period.

RIFLE

The rifle team kicked off their season with a convincing 492-488 win over Wilson on January 12th. Aivery Shuck posted the lone perfect 100 of the day with a quartet of Bears rounding out the scorers with matching 98s. Kyle Lloyd topped that Bear quartet by hitting one center during his relay. Emily Bonsall, Luke Turner and Nizaly Ortiz-Kreiner occupied the remaining scoring spots in the win.

BOWLING

The bowling team stumbled out of the gate, falling to Ephrata 5-2 in their opener on January 12th. Erin Moore posted the top E-town series, rolling a 642, but that was just the fourth best tally on the day behind a trio of Mountaineers. Daniel Eberle and Zach Wentzel also broke the 600 series plateau while Alaina Telenko just missed with her 594. Ayden Pope and Zach Deardorff teamed up for the final scoring spot and combined for a 545 series.

BOYS' BASKETBALL

Back on the hardwood, the boy's hoops team opened the 2020-2021 season with one win and one loss. The Bears kicked off their campaign on January 8th by topping Ephrata 37-28, giving first year skipper Lee Eckert his first varsity victory. A game high 11 points from Luke Pierson coupled with matching nine-point efforts from Matthew and Patrick Gilhool allowed the Bears to control from the start. The result was a 14-point cushion heading into the final quarter that allowed E-town to coast to a nine-point win.

The good times came to an end three nights later with a trip to Lititz to battle Warwick. Elizabethtown returned with a 64-43 loss courtesy of a feisty Warrior bunch. Pierson and Patrick Gilhool both reached double digits, but it was not enough as Warwick controlled throughout. Pierson drilled three from long range on his way to 17 points while Gilhool checked in with 16 points. Techeal Gonquoi (six points) and Branden Cummings (four points) cleaned up the remaining E-town points.