Manheim Central boys' basketball, winners of four straight games, won three games last week to improve their record to 10-5. They beat Octorara 63-48 in a crossover contest Feb. 13. The defense was strong and Trey Grube paced the offense with 21 points.

In a Section Three tilt against Solanco, Grube had 21 points, Wyatt Becker 18 and Cam Eberly 10 in a 70-34 blowout of the Golden Mules on Feb. 15. Again, the defense was strong, as Solanco did not score its first basket first until 1:31 remaining in the first quarter, as the Barons pushed out to a 28-2 lead.

Playing their third game in four nights, the Barons routed Elco, 61-32 on Feb. 16. Grube paced Manheim with 19 points, Judd Novak chipped in 12, Eberly added 10 and Collin Thompson had nine points. The Barons had 14 three-pointers in the game. Grube netted five treys and Thompson nailed three.

Barons' coach Charlie Fiser said his team is playing well on both sides of the ball and getting balanced scoring.

"We are shooting the ball well and playing as a team," he said. "Our defense has been great. Trey has been scoring right around 20 (points) each game and Wyatt was incredible against Solanco. Eberly has been great as well."

GIRLS' BASKETBALL

After sleep walking through the first half of a 10 a.m. start on Feb. 13, the Lady Barons woke up in the second half to breeze past Annville-Cleona for a 52-37 victory. Central led 17-15 at halftime before blowing the game wide open.

Maddie Knier netted 16 of her 23 points in the second half. Abbie Reed added 10 points and Summer Bates five for the Barons, who outscored AC 37-20 in the second half.

Central lost a heartbreaker to Elco on a buzzer beater, 54-53 on Feb. 16. Knier paced MC with 28 points. The Raiders stormed out to a 24-14 lead in the first quarter and led 31-27 at intermission. Manheim had a big third quarter, outscoring Elco 15-7 to take a 42-38 advantage after three quarters.

Barons' coach Tyson Hayes was pleased with his team's effort.

"It was a really hard-fought back-and-forth game," he said. "I was proud of the toughness and resiliency our team showed. Our future is so bright, and our kids are realizing how good they can become. Last night was a fabulous learning experience about late game execution, making pressure free throws, and getting a stop when we have to have one. I told them that if Michael Jordan had to go through failure so do we, and that this game is fuel and one we won't forget."

RIFLE

Manheim, with 997 points, finished in second place in the Lancaster-Lebanon League tournament, one point behind champion Ephrata (998).

Individually, Anna Haldeman took first place with a 200 and two centers.

Kami Groff came in sixth place with a 199 and two centers and Ellie McCabe came in eighth with a 199 and two centers. Based on back scoring, Kami finished higher. The shooter who finishes the strongest is ranked higher when identical scores are shot. It was great having three of our shooters make the top ten in the tournament coach Steve Waddington noted.

In addition, junior Anna Haldeman ranked first in All Stars and Ellie McCabe, also a junior, ranked ninth.

"I am proud of our team for a good season," Waddington said. "We did very well with many rookies on the roster in a complete league."

BOWLING

The Barons lost to Columbia 5-2 on Feb. 16 at Canes Lanes by a total of 2425-2311. The Crimson Tide won the first game 760-658. MC captured game two 828-729 and Columbia, in a high-scoring affair, took the third game, 936-825.

The loss ends Manheim's regular season with a 4-4 league record and 4-12 overall. For point record, MC recorded 29, 25 in league-play. The league bases positioning on points recorded. Central ended the year in third place.

The team only loses two seniors to graduation and the underclassmen gained a lot of experience this year. All things considered, Barons' coach Alan Sides was pleased with the effort.

"For the last two weeks we've basically been bowling short-handed," he said. "We were missing three starters for various reasons. Overall, considering what we've been dealt with this year, I'm proud of what the team accomplished. They never complained and just went out and bowled."

Sophomore Jesse Hurst led the way for the Barons with games of 141-196-177 for a three-game series of 514. Hailey Kowalski was next with a 504 triple behind games of 134-181-189. Landon Statts rolled a 495 on games of 165-142-189, Aaron Vogel, who normally bowls on the junior varsity, bowled a 433 on games of 138-149-146 and Cole Shontz rounded out the top five with a 397 on games of 112-155-130.

WRESTLING

Manheim had three grapplers compete in the Lancaster-Lebanon League wrestling tournament at Manheim Township Feb. 12-13. Freshman Gabe Thomas at 106 pounds competed in his first league tourney, going 0-2 in matches. One of his opponents was third or fourth in the state last year, Barons' coach Billy Chamberlain said.

Sophomore Brett Barbush, at 189, had a difficult draw. He lost to the top seed and returning state qualifier from Penn Manor, Colt Barley.

Barbush scored a major decision against Parker Owens of Lampeter-Strasburg, but the lost a close match, 8-6, to Russ Hanes from Hempfield. At heavyweight, Ryland Fittery lost his first match to the eventual league champion Zac Shelley. He won his second match, 3-1 against Justin Pacheco from McCaskey and lost his third match on a late pin to Hempfield's Caleb Mussmon. Trailing 1-0, he went for a move and while scrambling got on his back and was pinned with 20 seconds remaining.

"We didn't wrestle bad," Chamberlain said, "but under the circumstances, with only three kids competing and this being only our first tournament of the year - normally we compete in about four tournament settings - this was all new for us. We knew going in this was going to be a growing year. We are returning our starting lineup next year."

He said Thomas and Barbush were the team's two best wrestlers, and he is excited to see Fittery's growth next year, noting that the junior made huge strides this year.