The Hempfield girls' basketball team suffered an opening-round defeat in the Lancaster-Lebanon League playoffs on Saturday, February 12. The Section Two runner-up Black Knights visited Section Four champion Lancaster Catholic with the Crusaders winning 53-33.

The Crusaders ended the regular season with a perfect 11-0 mark in league play while Hempfield finished 11-2 - one game behind Penn Manor in the Section One standings.

One aspect of the Crusaders' offense that hurt Hempfield was the three-point shooting success. Mary Bolesky and Jeriyah Johnson, who finished with 17 and 14 points, respectively, each made four three-point jump shots.

Orianna Edmond led Hempfield in scoring with 11 points. Autumn Cook scored seven.

The Black Knights (14-6) go into the District Three Class 6A playoffs with an opening-round home game scheduled against Manheim Township. Number 10 seed Township (14-7) and Hempfield split their regular season series. The winner will face second-seeded Dallastown on the road, Thursday, February 24 in the quarterfinals.

SWIMMING

The girls' swim team finished second with 95 team points and the boys' squad scored 50 team points to claim fourth place at the L-L League Swimming & Diving Championships, held at the Roy G. Snyder Natatorium at Wilson High School on Friday and Saturday, February 11-12.

Warwick won the girls' team championship with 127 points while Manheim Township was first in the boys' standings with 126, followed by Warwick (84), Ephrata (62) and Hempfield.

Ella Root was the 100 breaststroke champ with a time 1:06.67 - an event where Emily Taylor took fourth (1:11.50).

Lillian Farmer and Caroline Schweigert went second and third in the 100 backstroke with respective times of 1:00.37 and 1:00.45.

The girls claimed second place in the 400-yard freestyle relay while earning third in the 200 free relay and the 200-medley relay.

In the medley relay, Farmer, Root, Anna Koger and Taylor had a combined time of 1:59.92. Taylor and Koger joined Micah Wiglesworth and Cassandra Christoffel for a 1:42.58 finish in the 200 free. Carol Fabian teamed up with Farmer, Christoffel and Wiglesworth for a time of 3:43.36 in the 400 free relay.

Fabian had two fourth-place finishes - the 500 and 200 freestyle events. In the 500 she swam a 5:21.15 pace with teammate Lucy Bishop also earning a medal at eighth place (5:30.77). Fabian's time in the 200 was (1:59.44) with Farmer (2:01.46) and Christoffel (2:0187) taking seventh and eighth. Christoffel also medaled in the 100 free - eighth place, 56.28. Bishop was the Knights' top finisher in the 100 fly (7th, 1:02.19) while Taylor (2:18.39) and Ella Wolfe (2:21.02) went fifth and sixth in the 200 individual medley

Sprinting to a fourth-place finish in the 50 free was Koger (25.82) joining eighth-place finisher Wiglesworth (26.02) in earning a medal.

The third-place finishes for the boys' relays included Jackson Root, Ryan Talor, Gavin Krawizcki and Tobin Marco in the 200 free relay (1:30.74) and Root, Taylor, Will Russell and Ardan McHugh in the 400 free relay (3:22.02).

Krawizcki and Marco were part of the 200-medley relay quartet with George Kiran and Jonathan Tsang, taking sixth at 1:44.19.

Root and Taylor led the Knights in two other individual events. Their 50 free times were good for third place by Root (22.69) and fifth for Taylor (22.85). Root and Taylor were fourth- and sixth-place finishers with respective times of 49.04 and 49.95 in the 100 free.

George and Russell each took a medal as eighth-place finishers with Russell swimming the 200 IM in 2:06.80 and George doing the 100 breaststroke in 1:04.71.

BOYS' BASKETBALL

The Knights cruised into the L-L League playoff semis with a 50-33 victory at Elco over the Raiders on Monday, February 14. The game pitted the Section One champ Knights against the Section Four champs.

Hempfield opened with 12 points in the first period and gained a 25-12 halftime edge. The Raiders (13-9) did close the gap by only four points heading into the fourth quarter. However, Hempfield held on for the win.

Ben Troyer and Miguel Pena both scored 16 points to share the top scoring honors on the night. Pena drilled a pair of treys.

Cole Overbaugh came through with eight points and Parker Wolfe scored six.

Warwick defeated Columbia on the same night, setting up a Wednesday night semifinal match against the Knights at Conestoga Valley.

Hempfield held on down the stretch for a 52-48 semifinal round victory. Despite being outscored by Warwick 21-17 in the fourth, the Knights earned a trip to the league championship game against Lampeter-Strasburg.

The balanced scoring included a 12-point output by Overbaugh, 11 by Troyer and nine points each by Pena and Michael Hester.

Tate Landis led Warwick with 17 points.

The Black Knights' overall 18-4 mark earned them a fourth seed in the District Three 6A power rankings.

BOWLING

Mitchell Barnes helped lead Hempfield to a team title in the L-L League bowling championships on Tuesday, February 15. The Knights and Comets were going head-to-head at Cain's Lanes where Hempfield was able to win the deciding third game by a close 881-872 margin.

The Comets, the defending champs, had won the second game 952-820 to even things up after Hempfield's 962-926 win. Mertz had two late strikes to help lift the Section One champion Knights.

Sophomore Derick Keller also knocked down three straight strikes in the middle frames and finished with a 206. His highest score of the day was a 254 in the opening game. Priest McKenzie scored 216 in that first game.

Earlier in the day, Hempfield defeated Manheim Central 836-733 and 801-651 then downed Elizabethtown 956-921 and 845-838.