Donegal's Evan Stehman was crowned Flight Three Singles champion at the LL League Tournament on May 3rd. The senior captured the title with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Tyler Snavely of Manheim Central.

"Evan played a great tournament from start to finish," credited head coach Trent Hoffmaster. "He has not lost as a singles player all year-an absolutely amazing season."

Stehman's trip to the championship matchup included wins over Luke Taylor of Conestoga Valley in round one (6-0, 6-1), Simon Domencic of Annville-Cleona in Round Two (6-1, 6-3) and a 6-0, 6-0 sweep past William Stillman of Lancaster Mennonite in the semifinals.

Stehman's post-season success follows an undefeated regular season in which he earned a 10-0 resume in singles competition.

Teammate Jacob Erb also punched a ticket to a championship match in Flight Four where he faced off with Ben Sheffield of Cedar Crest and fell 6-4, 6-4 to be named runner-up. Erb's journey through the bracket included wins over Ian Thompson of McCaskey (6-0, 6-0), Trevor Spang of ELCO (6-3, 6-0) and Devin Gacono of Annville-Cleona (6-0, 6-1).

Erb's success also preceded the tournament and the junior acquired an 11-0 track record during the regular season.

"Outstanding first year, a great accomplishment to finish second in the flight tournament," Hoffmaster said of Erb.

Luke Yunginger and Akilan Murugesan also represented Donegal in the singles tournament. Yunginger fell to his Annville-Cleona opponent in the first round of Flight One competition while Murugesan advanced to the semi-final round with a pair of wins before losing to Garrett Muraika of Cedar Crest.

Murugesan and Erb joined forces to work their way through the Flight Two doubles bracket, advancing all the way to the championship match to place second in the flight, falling to the champions from Ephrata 8-4. Their journey began with an 8-4 triumph against their Pequea Valley opponents, followed by an 8-2 victory over Manheim Township, and a semi-final triumph over Manheim Central 8-2.

Stehman and Yunginger teamed up for a Flight One doubles run to the semi-finals before facing a loss (8-5) to a duo from Lancaster Country Day. The pair earned a first-round bye and a second-round win over Lancaster Catholic (8-4).

Ben Hallgren and Jordan Miller also secured a spot in the tournament and fell to an early 8-2 loss to Manheim Central in Flight three.

A collective 10-2 team record for the regular season schedule also earned Donegal a spot in the District III Tournament which commenced on May 5th.

The initial round of District playoffs pitted Donegal against Berks Catholic and the Indians battled their way to a 3-2 victory.

Stehman made quick work of his opponent, winning in straight sets, and Erb and Hallgren grinded out a victory in doubles. After trailing a set, the duo rallied to take the next two.

The tightly contested dual came down to a tiebreaker singles match for Murugesan, in which he prevailed to advance Donegal to the semifinal round.

"The hero of the match was Akilan Murugesan," credited Hoffmaster. "Akilan played in an absolute slug fest. The two opponents made each other earn every point."

SOFTBALL

The Lady Indians hit their first setback in weeks last Wednesday, losing a 15-8 matchup against Northern Lebanon, their first loss since the beginning of April.

Both teams collected 14 hits, but Northern Lebanon was able to bring more runners home and pulled away with a five-run fifth inning.

Bella Mackison went four-for-four at the plate while driving in three runs. Aysha Gibbs and Emma Garber each supplied three hits, Kara Heidlauf added two, and Julianne Wheeler and Esther Myers had one apiece.

Prior to the loss, the Tribe picked up their ninth consecutive win while hosting Octorara on April 30th. It only took two at bats for the Lady Indians to rack up 16 hits in the 19-2 runaway victory.

Cara Biesecker faced 12 Octorara batters, striking out four of them in her three innings pitched, while earning her ninth straight victory in the circle.

Madeline Gohn slammed a first inning home run scoring Mackison, who also produced a homer in the second inning. Gohn finished the day with three hits and four RBIs, while Mackison drove in six runs on two hits.

Garber went three-for-three and drove in two. Gibbs and Natalie Colwell each supplied a pair of hits, and Biesecker, Paige Miller, Heidlauf, and Wheeler each added a hit.

BASEBALL

Donegal closed out the month of April with a 10-0 victory over Kenneth-Dale at home on April 30th that bumped their overall record to 6-9.

Nicholas Eichelberger was on the mound to earn the win for Donegal in the shutout, allowing just one hit and two walks, while striking out four.

The Indians only needed five hits to get the job done, supplied by Landen Baughman, AJ Small, Micah Brown, Alex Eisenberger, and Ian Brown.

Leadoff batter Baughman kick-started the opening inning with a single followed by a series of walks and heads-up base running that gained the Indians five runs in the frame.

TRACK

Donegal girls earned a double dose of victory in May 3rds double track meet, topping Lancaster Catholic 102-48 as well as Columbia 133-13.

Amanda Fry's first place times in 800m and 1600m held up against both opposing schools, Hadley Shoaf pulled in additional points with second place finishes in both the 1600 and 3200, while her sister Bailey Shoaf clocked personal bests in both the 800 and 3200.

Faith Garber sprinted to a 100m victory in 13.4, with fellow sophomore Anna Brubaker on her heels for a 13.5 second place.

Freshman Nya Bantum improved her shotput for a personal best and first-place distance of 30-1, and teammate Emily Kreider topped discus with an 80-1.

Another freshman victory came from Claudia Taylor who provided a 14-4 long jump. Kreider followed, reaching 14-1 for second, and teammate Hannah Slobozien completed the Donegal sweep to take third (13-4).

The Lady Indians also swept the triple jump with Sarah Hinkel winning at 30-6.5, while Taylor (27-11), and Lillian Stehman (27-6) followed.

In the high jump it was Donegal's Brubaker with the win at 4-8.

For the boys, the evening yielded split results, with a 92-58 loss to Lancaster Catholic and a 112-16 win over Columbia, but the throwing events featured a Donegal sweep in shotput and discus as well as a strong javelin showing.

Zack Nissley's efforts were reward with wins in javelin (153-6) and shot (43-10.5), and Brandon' Cucugliello's 111-7 discus throw was both a personal record and a first-place effort.

Cucugliello added another personal best with his 39-4 shotput for second place. Ashton Robertson claimed second in disc and third in javelin, and Owen Champ secured third in both shot and disc.

Brock Overlander won the mile in 4:38, and Jackson Dearborn took home double victories in the triple and high jumps accompanied by a second place in the long jump.