It may not have been the ending most pictured in their dreams but for the Elizabethtown swimmers, their showing at the L-L Championship Meet on February 11th and 12th was still solid. The Lady Bears ended up fifth in the final team standings while the boy's side was one spot lower in sixth place.

"We had a great meet, and a great end to the season for the majority of our swimmers," said head coach Chad Houck. "It was awesome to see the senior class off the way we did, with many doing lifetime bests."

Houck pointed out that of the 43 total races that E-town participated in at Wilson High School's Roy G. Snyder Natatorium, the Bears posted 39 personal best times, shaving a total of 1:49.38 off those previous best times. He even mentioned how a few swimmers position themselves to either end up at the District 3 meet or end up just outside the qualifying cut lines.

Everett Rachael was one of those he mentioned, and the freshman continued his stellar season by lowering his school record in the 500-freestyle to 4:58.39, good enough for third at the L-L meet. He added a solo fourth place finish in the 200-freesytle, setting a new school record in the process, as well as matching fifth place finishes in the 200-medley relay and the 200-freestyle relay. Wyatt Rachael, Riley Runnels and Nathan Yohn made up the other three legs of both relays with the quartet posting a new school record in the 200-medlay relay with their 1:43.86.

Morgan Conway was the other swimmer Houck felt had a good chance of earning a spot in the district meet. That was thanks mainly to her solo work in the 200 IM where she finished fourth (1:49.02) and the 100-breaststroke where she captured bronze with a 1:08.24. She also took part in the 200-freestyle relay that finished sixth and the 400-freestyle relay that claimed seventh. Conway was joined by Sierra Kapcsos, Tessa Cronin and Genna McDonald in the 200-free relay and by Cronin, Ali Fink and Julia Garber in the 400-free relay.

McDonald, along with the boy's 200-meley relay, is one of the swimmers Houck expects to be just in or just out after the junior finish sixth in the 100-breaststroke and 10th in the 100-butterfly. She, along with Fink, Garber and Kapcsos, also helped the Lady Bears take fourth in the 200-medey relay, posting a 1:58.19.

Kapcsos was not able to enjoy the podium with her solo work, but the senior did add a 10th place finish in the 50-free and a 15th place finish in the 100-free. Garber's 19th place in the 50-free and Lily Rutkowski's 18th place in the 100-backstroke rounded out the top 20 finishers for the Lady Bears.

The boy's 400-freestyle relay team of Jared Louie, Ethan Hall, Dalton Fink and Carter Ketchum enjoyed an eighth-place finish with their 3:35.81. Hall added a 13th place in the 100-backstroke while Runnels picked up a 12th place for his work in the 100-breaststroke and a 20th place in the 100-freestyle. Three other Bears managed to crack the top 20 with Wyatt Rachael taking 11th in the 50-free. Jake Rudy added a 15th place in the 200IM while Connor Alspaugh was the last Bear to slip into the top 20, finishing 20th in the 100-butterfly.

GIRLS' BASKETBALL

Thanks to some early January winter weather, the girls' basketball team had one last game to play, a February 10th battle opposite Hershey. Elizabethtown's visit to Chocolate Town was anything but sweet as the Lady Trojans posted a 45-39 win. Only four players managed to score for E-town, led by Jade Love-Morris and her 17-points. Ainsley Raybold added 14-points while Taryn Hummer (seven-points) and Jadyn Lloyd (one-point) finished the scoring.

WRESTLING

The wrestling team capped their 17-3 Section Two title winning regular season on February 9th with a 42-24 win over Governor Mifflin. Despite the comfortable final margin, the early portion of the match made things look bleak for Elizabethtown as Governor Mifflin claimed five of the first seven matches leading to a 24-9 Mustang lead.

Aiden Robinson at 152 and Jake Rudy at 160 were the Bears that broke up Mifflin's opening run while Bradley Candy brought it to an end with his second period fall at 285. Falls by Hayden Best at 106 and Wyatt Mummau at 113 erased E-town's deficit and put the home team up 27-24 with three matches remaining. Elizabethtown claimed all three of those matches starting with Austin Reitmeyer's fall at 120. Ryan Findlay followed with an easy forfeit win at 126 before Nathan Thomas closed out the match with a 9-2 win at 132.

RIFLE

Oh, what a season for the Elizabethtown rifle team. The Bears put a bowtie on their perfect 14-0 regular season with a monster showing at the Lancaster Lebanon League Individual Tournament. That included winning the team title, 993-991, over Manheim Centra while placing all five shooters in the top 20, including the top two, and picking up four separate All-Star nods.

"This has been a coach's dream come true," said head coach David Reinfried.

Rachel Broomell led the way, nipping teammate Branden Rain for the top spot despite both shooters finishing with a perfect 200. Broomell got the gold thanks to her four centers to just one for Rain. Luke Turner and Emily Bonsall both finished with a 198 and one center, leaving Tuner in 14th and Bonsall 15th. Kyle Lloyd was just off that pace with 197 and two centers, good enough for 18th place.

Broomell led the quartet of Elizabethtown All-Stars with her 99.33 average, falling just 0.17 out of the top spot that was shared by James Gossert (Governor Mifflin), Leksi Bender (Garden Spot) and Anna Haldeman (Manheim Central) and their 99.5 average. Rain slotted in behind Broomell with a 99.17 average while Turner (98.83) and Lloyd (99.83) also made the All-Star cut.

BOWLING

The bowling team's run at the L-L title came to a crashing halt with a 4-0 second round loss to Hempfield on February 15th. E-town's five of Alaina Telenko, Derek Deardorff, Daniel Eberle, Zach Wentzel and Ayden Pope were all off, leading to Black Knight wins of 956-921 and 845-838. Deardorff (242) and Eberle (212) posted the only two games over 200 for the Bears.

Elizabethtown earned the spot opposite Hempfield with a 4-0 first round win over Columbia. This time the Bears managed five games over 200, including both by Wentzel, to post a 941-832 and 161-953 victory.