If you are familiar with the high school track and field calendar you know that May brings postseason meets to the forefront. For Manheim Central that all starts with a trip to Hempfield for the L-L Championship Meet, held this year on May 13th and 14th. The boy's team finished the two-day affair in a tie for 10th with Warwick, with both teams collecting 20 team points. The Lady Barons collected a whopping 103.5 points good enough for a solid second place behind McCaskey (138) and in front of Warwick (72).

The Lady Barons podium parade included 16 trips from nine different athletes. Madison Knier collected four of them, splitting her hardware between gold and silver. Knier took gold in the long jump and triple jump with her efforts in the high jump and javelin falling just off the pace but still good for second place.

Malea Stoner and Abbie Reed also made four trips to the podium with the pair enjoying the same four trips. Stoner was the top finisher in the 300H field but missed going double hurdle gold after taking silver in the 100H. Reed joined her teammate on both medal stands, finishing third in both events. The pair also picked up a bronze for their work in the 1600m relay and an eighth-place medal for their work in the 400m relay.

Milan Snell was also part of both relay teams while picking up a solo fifth place medal for a 59.51 in the 400m. Sarah Forry was the final member of the 1600m relay while Rachel Nolt served the same for the 400m relay. Nolt tacked on a bronze in the long jump, giving Manheim a 1-3 finish in the event.

Bella Sensing added a fifth place in the pole vault while Laci Nelson was the final medal winner in the field, finishing second in the shot put. Liz Voegele finished the medal winning on the track joining Stoner and Reed on the 100H podium with a sixth-place finish and the 300H podium with a fifth-place finish.

For the boy's it was Kahlen Watt and Landon McGallicher leading the way with two medals each. The pair were joined by Larry Marley and Bode Sipe for an eighth place run in the 400m relay while going solo for their other medal. McGallicher garnered silver in the 110H while Watt took seventh in the 100m. Tyler Fahnestock added a fifth-place finish in the shot put.

BASEBALL

The baseball team kicked off the postseason the same way they closed out their regular season, with a loss to Manheim Township. The Barons dropped their regular season finale to Township on May 10th, then opened their postseason on the 14th by facing the same Blue Streak squad. Central was not quite able to crack the Township code but they did get closer, falling 2-1 in the L-L quarterfinal tilt just days after dropping a 7-0 regular season finale.

Connor Rohrer took the hard luck loss after allowing two runs on just four hits and two walks to go with six strikeouts. Central managed just two hits, both coming in the bottom of the seventh. Collin Thompson connected for a one-out double with Ty Clugston subbing in as the courtesy runner who then scored on Jared Murray's two-out single.

VOLLEYBALL

The boys' volleyball team closed out their regular season on May 11th, falling to Garden Spot by a 3-2 final. The loss put the Barons at 8-5 and sixth in the final District 3-2A rankings, setting them up for a rematch with Lancaster Mennonite in the D3-2A quarterfinals.

As for the loss to Spot, it appeared that Manheim was going to sweep the Spartans in the regular season series after posting wins of 25-18 and 25-14 in games two and three but Garden Spot had other ideas. They regained their game one form where they opened with a 25-21 victory to tie the match at 2-2 with a 25-19 game four win before ending things with a 15-7 victory.

Barend Oostdam capped his first team all-section one all-star nod with an 11 kill, three block game. Dylan Musser had 18 assists and two blocks while Trent Groff added seven kills and seven digs. John Wenger, who ended up on the second team all-section one squad, added 23 digs and two aces. Jacob Moyer, who joined Wenger on the second team all-section one squad had 10 kills and 10 digs. Josh Dippel rounded out the Manheim Central all-stars by joining Oostdam on the first team all-section one team.