They may not be on the same level as the annual NCAA Men's Basketball bracket but in central Pennsylvania you will be hard pressed to find a more sought-after bracket than the ones released for the District 3 boy's wrestling championships.

The championship march started on February 18th with mid-state grapplers scattered throughout the region for the sectional portion of the District 3 Championship. For Elizabethtown that meant a trip Southeast to Landisville where Hempfield was playing host to 14 other schools. E-town sent 11 wrestlers and returned with five medals, good enough for seventh place in the final team standings, just 0.5 points behind Manheim Township.

Aiden Robinson earned the top Bear finish, working his way to silver in the 152-pound championship. Robinson's lone setback came in the final with Central Dauphin's Ryan Garvick collecting gold, forcing Robinson to settle for second. The senior was able to top Penn Manor's Joshua Zook as well as Palmyra's Mason Bucks before the Garvick loss.

Elizabethtown brought one bronze home from Hempfield with Nathan Thomas rebounding after a 133-pound quarterfinal loss with four straight wins and a third place finish. That quarterfinal loss was to Manheim Township's Zach Landis in extra time. From there Thomas ripped off wins over Cody Hess (Manheim Central), Avery Vogelbacher (McCaskey) and Zy McCain-Murray (Hempfield) setting up a rematch with Landis. The rematch, along with the bronze medal, went to Thomas by a 9-2 final.

Ryan Findlay found himself in the consolation finals in the 145-pound bracket but was unable to post the win, settling for fourth place thanks to a loss to Warwick's Bryn Hess. After opening with a win over Lampeter-Strasburg's Josh Heisey, Findlay saw his title hopes dashed by Central Dauphin's Matt Repos. A bounce back win over McCaskey's Jessiah Jimenez set up the Hess meeting.

Bradley Candy went 3-2 at 215, finishing fourth after a consolation final loss to Milton Hershey's Tyler Quinter. Candy also opened with a loss, this one to Donegal's Daniel Viselli but was able to collect wins over Nicky Bruno (Hempfield), Tate Mahkel (Warwick) and Luke Nye (Central Dauphin) for a winning record on the day.

The final Bear to make the podium was Austin Reitmeyer and he opened his march through the 127-pound bracket with a bye. The senior followed with a win over Palmyra's Xavier Hoffer only to drop his semifinal match to Central Dauphin's Liam Flanagan. A solid win over Hershey's Ben Farr led to the consolation final loss to Manheim Central's Barrett Keiffer.

Two E-town grapplers, Hayden Best (114) and Devin Forney (160), found the trip to Landisville difficult, leading to a winless day. Three of the remaining four Bears ended up with just one win each while Collin Huggins went 2-2 at 189-pounds. Ryan Hottenstein (285), Francis Burke (121) and Kai Laszakovits (139) were the trio of one win Bears.

BOWLING

The postseason continued for the bowling team with the singles tournaments taking center stage. The Lady Bears bowled on February 16th while the boys went a day later.

The Lady Bears sent seven bowlers to Palmyra to take part in the six-game qualifying round. Ella Eberle tallied 1112 pins over those six games, slotting her fourth in the stepladder finals. That meant a first round match-up opposite Penn Manor's Eva Brubaker that went to Brubaker 165-148, leaving Eberle seventh in the final standings. Kendra Griffie (13th), Miranda Davis (15th), Ava McAlonis (19th), Maya Laboy (27th), Lily Troutman (28th) and Candice Bixler (34th) completed the Lady Bear fleet.

On the boys' side only four Bears made the trip to Leisure Lanes on the 17th but three of them finished inside the top 10 in the six-round qualifying, giving Elizabethtown roughly one-third of the boys' finalists. Declan Lentz was the lone kegler to fall short of the finals, finishing 45th in the qualifying round.

Zach Wentzel was the top E-town bowler, finishing third in both the qualifying round and the final standings. His 1213 qualifying count set up a first round match with Cocalico's Jared Ferguson with Wentzel posting a 240-168 win. Conestoga Valley's Daniel Subers was the next to fall with Wentzel's teammate, Derek Deardorff the final victim. Manheim Township's Nick Tomlinson ended Wentzel's run on his way to the L-L title.

Deardorff, courtesy of that loss to Wentzel, ended up fourth in the final standings, holding steady from his qualifying slot. He managed wins over Columbia's Dominic Lenhart as well as teammate Mason Moore.

Moore used an opening round win over Conestoga Valley's Ryan Muckle to flip his eighth-place qualifying mark into a fifth-place finish in the final standings. The loss to Deardorff followed, putting Bears in third, fourth and fifth in the final standings.