The Comets may have only finished in a tie for eighth place in the Lancaster-Lebanon League track and field championships, but they came home with not one, but three gold medals. Kyle Murr set a new meet record on Saturday, May 15th on his third triple jump of the day. The 47-10.5 jump beat a shared record by Sylvester Gray (McCaskey) and Will Rivers (Manheim Central) set in 1996 and 2019, respectively.

"Kyle came in second to Will that year," stated head coach Ben Shober. "We believe he is the No. 1 ranked triple jumper in the state."

Also sharing gold medal success was Graham Thomas. The senior distance runner snagged the 3200 gold on Friday with a 9:15.03 and came back Saturday with a personal best 4:19.59 for his second lead the pack medal.

Leo Medvedkin also grabbed a pair of medals, settling for fourth place in the open 400 with a personal best 51.49 and adding a seventh in the pole vault, clearing 10-6.

Dorrien Zimmerman, with a sixth-place finish in the 110 hurdles (15.89) was Manor's last medal-winner.

Top finisher for the girls' team, placing 13th overall, was Jayln Clow. The senior threw the discus 109-6 to grab a bronze medal. Jordan Schucker was seventh in the javelin (105-9), Alyssa Heagy cleared 4-10 in the high jump for seventh place, and Gertrude Moenga threw a personal best 32-5.75 in the shot put for eighth place.

On the track, Anne Bibus claimed fifth in the mile (5:19.45).

VOLLEYBALL

With their fourth-place finish in the Section One standings (6-6), the boys qualified for the L-L League playoffs which got underway Friday, May 14 at Garden Spot. The undefeated Spartans (12-0) just barely advanced, squeaking past the Comets in overtime, winning 25-16, 27-25, 28-26.

"The boys fought from behind in all three sets," said head coach Dustin Hornberger. "Will Carson was a force from the service line. We rode his serve late, along with Isaac Hopstetter's. Riley Walton was a force at the net and in the back row. He attacked from everywhere," Hornberger added. "We were down 24-20 in the third set and rallied back to have our own game point. The boys kept pushing and fighting together for every point."

Walton, with a game-high 10 kills, matched Max Bushon's nine digs to pace the Comets. Wyatt Rohrer dished out 17 assists and Greyson Schatz added two blocks.

With the loss, that included Manor's 18th straight appearance in the L-L League Playoffs, the Comets end their season.

TENNIS

Curtis Rabatin and Maxwell Davis competed in the District Three 3A doubles tournament Friday and Saturday, May 14-15 and came away with a silver medal.

The Comet duo came out strong on Friday, barely breaking a sweat as they retired Palmyra's Aidan Mark and Nolan Ciesielska, of Palmyra, 6-0, 6-2 and then handled Red Lion's Andre Nadeau and Cooper Wheeler 6-1, 6-1 in the quarterfinals.

In Saturday's semis, held at Hershey Racquet Club, the pair earned a 7-5, 6-3 win over No. 3 William Omg/ Vivek Srinivas putting themselves in the finals opposite top seed Aidan Mahaffey and Tyler Mahaffey. The Palmyra tandem grabbed gold with a 6-2, 6-4 victory.

Manor's season continued last Tuesday morning at Legacy Youth Tennis and Education (Philadelphia) where they battled Lower Merion in the opening round of the state tournament. While the result was a 5-0 loss, it was groundbreaking for the Comets, who were making their first-ever trip to states as a team.

"Even though we lost, we had quality tennis across all courts," said head coach Amanda Pryzbylkowski. "This was an amazing first taste of states and I feel like the team is super motivated to get there again next season."

BOYS' LACROSSE

Last Monday, the 11th seeded Comets worked a 13-10 come-from-behind upset at No. 6 seed Governor Mifflin (12-6).

Manor jumped out to an early 2-0 lead, but the hosts battled back, going ahead 3-2 at the end of one. Manor did not regain the lead until under nine minutes left in the game.

"We got ourselves into two and three goal deficits but battled back," said head coach Zack Charles. "The fourth quarter had nothing to do with lacrosse and all to do with our kids' effort and heart."

Down 9-8 heading into the fourth, Manor exploded for five goals, held GM to one, and advanced to Wednesday night's quarterfinal round opposite No. 3 Cumberland Valley (16-1).

"Erik Hinkle basically took control of the faceoffs during the third and fourth quarter," noted Charles. "Eli Warfel's goal put us up 10-9 while Clayton Hollinger's (6 goals) buzzer beater at the end of the third changed the tide of the game."

Cole Spezialetti and Hinkle each scored twice while Nick Hollinger made seven stops.

"Great moments are created by great opportunities," he added. "Cumberland Valley is a great opportunity for us."

Unfortunately, that opportunity turned into a heartbreaking 7-6 defeat. The Comets looked good with a 4-2 lead at the half, CV cut the lead to 5-4 before winning the fourth quarter 3-1 and advancing to the semifinals.

Hollinger led with two goals and two assists. Adam Hollinger, Warfel, Jack Barley and Benedict Flinchbaugh added one goal each while N. Hollinger was impressive in goal, recording 14 saves. The Comets finish the season at 13-6.

GIRLS' LACROSSE

Wednesday, May 12, the Comets slipped to 5-10 overall, after dropping a 7-4 result against a Garden Spot. The Spartans took a 5-2 advantage in the first half, which proved to be the difference as both squads finished with a pair of second half goals.

Dings pushed her season goal total to a team-high 29 goals with two. Maddie Weber and Catherine Rabatin each scored once. Mackenzie Nafziger and Booklynn Ayala finished with five saves each.

The girls capped their season with a 10-7 loss to Ephrata.

"Both games were tight and winnable, but we lacked consistency," said head coach Anneli Starry. "Consistency was our Achilles heel this year. At one point we had 13 girls quarantined with four in boots on the sideline. And every other week we were missing two or three players, so we struggled with a consistent lineup for the entire season.

"Still, we showed major improvement in not only what we accomplished on the field but how positive the team atmosphere was, despite covid," she continued. "Our record does not show the talent we have."

For their efforts this season, Katie Mackey (second team midfield) and Maddie Weber (honorable mention attack) all-star selections.

SOFTBALL

The Comets secured their third straight shutout with Monday's 2-0 win at Pequea Valley and advanced to the semifinals of the Lancaster-Lebanon League playoffs opposite Lampeter-Strasburg, Tuesday.

Manor scored two runs against PV in the top of the third. After a lead-off walk to Kylie Goss, Rineer doubled in what proved to be the winning run. Tori Patterson added an insurance run with a sac fly.

The visitors finished with just three hits on the day, including a two out double by pinch hitter Rachel Soboleski in the seventh inning.

Pequea threatened in the seventh, loading the bases with two outs before Bella Peters worked a pop out to get out of the jam. The Braves finished with four hits but committed two errors.

Peters earned the shutout with eight strikeouts, matching Pequea's Olivia Ammon.

In Millersville Tuesday, the Comets came up short in avenging their 7-5 loss to L-S on April 19. Loose play early on played a role in their 4-3 final.

The Comets committed three errors in the first two innings and fell behind 4-0 with L-S earning just one of those runs.

L-S opened with two in the first and Manor looked to answer in the top of the second. Emily Riggs singled and scored on Maddie Trout's double but the run was called back when the ball rolled under the outfield fence.

"That really squashed our momentum," said Stokes. "That could have been the difference in the game. I was going to send Maddy home for an inside the park homer, but they called it back. And the inning ended with a double play. We couldn't catch a break."

L-S loaded the bases in the bottom of the second and pushed two more runs across on a bobbled ball in the outfield.

L-S was denied after that while the Comets plated single runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings to make things interesting.

Rineer, Riggs and Trout accounted for six of Manor's ten hits, five of which were doubles. Peters scattered five hits, struck out two and walked two as the Comets fell to 18-4 overall.