If you are looking for springtime certainties and do not like the April showers bring May flowers rhyme, look no further than Landisville on a Saturday in April. That is where you will find the Black Knight invitational, with the 19th annual edition held April 15th. Elizabethtown was one of 25 teams competing with the Bears collecting a handful of top 10 performances.Unfortunately, weather cancelled the meet before all events were contested.

Anna Rank led that group, capturing silver in the pole vault by clearing 11-6. Jordan DiRisio and Ali Fink both made the 1600m podium with DiRisio taking 4th and Fink 7th. The 400m relay team added a 5th place to finish the Lady Bear podium tally.

Brendan Rilatt claimed the top spot for the boys, finishing 6th in the discus with Colin Rilatt finishing 17th. Bradley Kreider enjoyed the final top 10, placing 9th in the 1600m. Jaycen Conrad joined Kreider in the 1600m, finishing 15th. Elizabethtown also had two top 20 finishes in the triple jump thanks to the work of Caleb Kreider and Tavon Schoenberger. Kreider claimed 14th while Schoenberger finished 18th.

Both teams returned to regular dual meet competition on the 17th with the boys falling to Ephrata by an 86-46 final while the Lady Bears fell by an 83-67 final.

LACROSSE

The girls' lacrosse team kept themselves near the top of the Section Two standings with wins over Warwick and Lancaster Country Day pushing the Lady Bears to 5-2 in league action.

A strong first half coupled with Sydney Pope's 12 saves was enough for E-town to get by Warwick 10-6 on the 13th. Dani Bruno lit the lamp five times with Aiesha Rios the only other multi-goal scorer. Moira Shott, Josie Spayd and Callie Love-Morris cleaned up the remaining three goals.

Things were not as close on the 17th with Elizabethtown blowing by LCD 19-2 on the strength of a 12-2 opening half blitz. Rios fronted the offense with six goals, but Shott was close behind with five of her own. Bruno added three while Spayd picked up two more. Piper Patrick, Love-Morris, and Charley Lengel-Kramer split the three remaining scores while Pope needed just five saves to earn the win.

The world of lacrosse is not all sunshine and roses for Elizabethtown as losses to Warwick and Lancaster Country Day have the boy's team still on the lookout for their first win of 2023.

The Bears were unable to find the back of the net in the April 13th clash with Warwick, falling by a 17-0 final. AJ Buch finished with 11 saves.

E-town's offense came alive for their April 17th showdown with LCD, but the Cougars still managed the 17-8 victory. Bush finished with nine saves this time around. Dylan Ginder netted four scores, Elijah Poulos added two while Bryce Kauffman and Carter Ketchum each finished with one.

TENNIS

The 2023 regular season has officially come to an end for Elizabethtown boy's tennis. The Bears closed out their 13-match run with a win over Lebanon on the 17th coupled with a loss to Lower Dauphin on the 18th.

Luke Risser was the lone victor against LD, taking the top singles match. He repeated that feat against Lebanon with Emory Morgan, Finn Grinnell and Ethan Duralja joining in for singles victories. Risser and Morgan teamed up for their doubles win while Grinnell and Duralja did the same. Bennett Kreider and Levi Sites finished out the doubles sweep.

BASEBALL

The baseball team finds themselves in the middle of a mid-season slump with consecutive losses to Ephrata, Lampeter-Strasburg and Solanco dropping the Bears to 6-5 on the year.

Despite jumping out to a 2-0 lead against Ephrata on the 14th, Elizabethtown ended up on the wrong side of the 4-3 final. The Mountaineers answered E-town's opening shot with a three run second, adding what would prove to be a valuable insurance run in the third. That 4-2 cushion held until the top of the seventh when an Ephrata error allowed the Bears to plate a single run, setting the final at 4-3.

Pike Burkett took the loss after pitching the opening one and one-third innings and surrendering three of those Ephrata runs. Evan Hassinger covered the remaining time, adding five strikeouts to his one run allowed. Isaiah Shayter and Kaden Kimble pushed across the first inning runs.

The Bears were on the other end of an early burst, falling behind Lampeter-Strasburg 4-0 after one inning on their way to a 10-4 loss on the 17th. The Pioneers plated the remainder of their runs in the sixth, putting the 10-run rule in play. E-town kept the game going with a three-run bottom half, adding their final run in the seventh.

Burkett was hit with another loss, this one for covering five and two-thirds innings. Noah Locke finished things off on the mound with the pair combining for seven walks and four strikeouts.

Perez had just one hit, but it was a two-run shot that put E-town on the board in the sixth. Hassinger added a sac fly in the frame while Kimble pushed across the final run by hitting into a fielder's choice.

Offense was hard to find in E-town's 1-0 loss to Solanco on the 19th with teams combining for eight hits and one run. Perez had three of those hits while Shayter took the complete game loss.

VOLLEYBALL

What is the best way to shake off a loss that snapped a three-game winning streak? Another win. At least that is the route the boys' volleyball team took after suffering a 3-1 loss to Garden Spot, bouncing back with a 3-1 win over Cocalico.

The streak busting loss came on April 13th where E-town answered Spot's 25-23 game one win with a 25-22 game two win. The Spartans took over from there with wins of 25-23 and 25-14 setting the 3-1 final. Eli Miller finished with 38 assists and Cooper Torborg 13 kills in the loss.

The bounce back came on the 18th where E-town missed the sweep thanks to Cocalico's 25-17 game three win. Wins of 25-20, 25-22 and 25-22 secured the match for the Bears. Josh McCoy finished with 16 kills and five aces while Seth Rajnic added 13 kills and six blocks. Miller added 46 assists and Prabin Bhattarai 10 digs.

SOFTBALL

The softball team followed the same script with a loss to Ephrata snapping a three-game run followed by a win over Lampeter-Strasburg planting the seed for a new one.

The loss to Ephrata was on the 14th with the Lady Mountaineers scoring five of the final six runs to pull away for the 9-6 win. The Lady Bears did enjoy a 5-4 lead before the tide started to turn in the fourth with only a single run in the fifth breaking up Ephrata's surge. Leah Aldous and Sophia Finch provided the early spark, combining for four RBI. Chloe Wilkinson and Astyn Calaman finished with one RBI each.

Elizabethtown returned to their winning ways on the 17th, rolling Lampeter-Strasburg by a 16-7 final. Finch carried the big bat for E-town, totaling five RBI that included a three-run shot in the fourth. Carli Zerphey and Wilkson split four hits and four RBI down the middle to help the cause.