It is said that idle hands are the devil's workshop and, if true, the Elizabethtown wrestlers spent the past week making sure the devil would be nowhere near their program. The Bears were in action four times in a seven-day span, going 2-2 and improving to 4-2 overall.

E-town's most impressive win came on Jan. 23rd where they toppled Manheim Central 42-33. After taking an opening bout forfeit, the Bears ripped off six straight victories, flipping that 6-0 deficit into a 36-6 cushion. Bonus points were the theme of the run that started with a Nathan Thomas forfeit win. Ryan Findlay, Aiden Robinson, Cade Capello and Bobby Walters all followed with pinfall wins while Jake Rudy picked up his bonus points via injury default. Central mounted a comeback, closing the gap to 36-33 after a string of five straight wins but one final forfeit win, this one for Wyatt Mummau sealed the victory.

The Bears' first match of the stretch went down January 20th and Elizabethtown enjoyed some late match luck to post a 33-27 win over neighboring Donegal. The Indians claimed six of the first eight weight classes, building a 27-9 lead. Mummau kick started the Bear comeback with a win at 120 while Thomas followed with a forfeit win at 126, closing the gap to 27-18. Findley kept things moving with his decision at 132 which meant Robinson's first period pinfall at 138 knotted the match at 27-27.

Capello was the final Bear to take the mat and found himself trailing Donegal's Silas Mumper in the second period but earned the decisive victory when Mumper ran out of injury time. Rudy and Austin Reitmeyer nabbed the two early wins that came during Donegal's strong open.

Wedged between those two victories was a 42-21 loss to Lampeter-Strasburg on the 22nd. Only four Bears came out victorious against the Pioneers starting with Reitmeyer at 106. Mummau picked up the next win, matching Reitmeyer's decision and making the score 18-6. Two L-S bonus point wins extended their lead to 28-6 before Robinson halted things with a pinfall win at 138.

Rudy tacked on the final E-town team points with a third period pinfall win only to see Lampeter-Strasburg take the final three matches for the 42-21 final.

Elizabethtown closed out the stretch on January 26th with a 53-15 loss to Garden Spot. The three E-town victories came in back-to-back-to-back weight classes starting at 152. It was there that Rudy broke up a seven-match run for the Spartans with a 15-8 win. Hayden Haver and Bobby Walters followed with pinfall wins but Elizabethtown was still trailing 35-15. Spot tacked on three more bonus point wins for the 53-15 final.

BOYS' BASKETBALL

An odd, non-COVID scheduling quirk left the boys' basketball team with just one game over the last week. Unfortunately, that one game was against Warwick and the result was a 56-38 setback that dropped the Bears to 2-3 on the year.

Despite an 18-point final margin, the Bears matched the visiting Warriors point for point in the first stanza and hung around through the opening half, trailing just 23-18 at the break. "I was really proud of the guys," said head coach Lee Eckert. "We came out and had our defensive game plan and held a team that is pretty much leading the league in scoring to eight points in the first quarter.

"Warwick is a really good team, there is no sugar coating that," continued Eckert, "Obviously we'd like to have a better second half, more of a complete game instead of just the first 16 minutes."

Just five players cracked the box score for Elizabethtown with Matthew Gilhool posting a team high nine points.

SWIMMING

The Bear swimmers were in action just once as well, taking on Lampeter-Strasburg on January 26th. The boy's improved to 3-0 with a 110-60 win while the Lady Bears suffered their first loss, 97-73. "The boys have been flexible and resilient all year. I'm grateful to see their efforts play out in the water," said head coach Chad Houck of the boy's win while commenting on the girl's side by saying, "we knew coming in that we probably wouldn't have enough this year. With some swimmers out, and a lack of top end scorers, our depth was not enough to carry us past L-S. That said, we had some good times, and learned a few things to set swimmers up for Leagues in February."

Despite posting a comfortable win, the boy's managed just one more victory than the Lady Bears. That one additional win came in the 200-freestyle relay where Ben and Sam Azzalina joined Andrew Donahue and Wyatt Rachael for the win. Rachael and the Azzalina brothers picked up a second relay win in the 200-medley with help from Riley Runnels. Ben Azzalina also won the 50- and 100-freestyle races. Runnels added a win in the 100-backstroke while Rachael finished things up with his 100-breaststroke victory.

Gabby Walsh, Morgan Conway, Genevieve McDonald and Megan Handshew joined forces for the Lady Bears' lone relay win, taking the 200-medley. Conway went on to claim the 100-freestyle and the 100-breaststroke while Walsh grabbed the 100-backstroke and the 100-butterfly.

BOWLING

The bowling team has found their grove, ripping off three more 7-0 wins and improving to 39-10 on the year. Two of those wins came on back-to-back days with E-town topping Manheim Central on the 21st and Conestoga Valley on the 22nd.

The Bears used nine bowlers in their win over Central with Ayden Pope's 669 series highlighting the sweep. One day later E-town went with just five keglers in an easy win over CV. Alaina Telenko led the way with a 747 series but Zach Deardorff (672), Eryn Moore (629) and Zach Wentzel (625) all joined the 600 club. Daniel Eberle finished the scoring five with a 561 series.

A few days later the Bears used a 'Zach Attack' to knock down Lebanon. Deardorff (651) and Wentzel (635) were the only two Bears to break 600 during the 7-0 victory. Pope's 588 came close while Eberle, Moore, Telenko and Derek Deardorff all helped in the win.

RIFLE

Elizabethtown's rifle team was in action three times but managed four matches thanks to another COVID double header. E-town's second double of the year took place on the 21st with the Bears dropping both matches to Governor Mifflin. Both matches needed just five shooters, but Mifflin's shooters managed to eek out wins of 492-489 and 495-493. Luke Turner and Aivery Shuck posted Elizabethtown's only two 100s for the day.

E-town's other two matches were both against Ephrata but took place on separate days. The Mountaineers posted a 779-778 win on the 20th while Elizabethtown collected a 588-587 win on the 26th.

Emma Kreiser led the way in the win with help from Shuck, Ortiz-Kreiner, Emily Bonsall, Kate Kruft and Allison Lowell. Kreiser was one shot away from a second 100 in the loss against Ephrata, settling for a 99 with one center. Instead, it was Bonsall posting the 100 to lead the way with Kyle Lloyd, Lowell, Turner, Shuck, Kruft and Ortiz-Kreiner rounding out the scoring.