Penn Manor's Corinne Smith, a bowler, and Travis Clawson and Riley Evans, both wrestlers, competed at the district level in their respective sport over the past week.

Smith wrapped up a fourth-place finish at the District Three singles championships held Saturday, February 25 at Clearview Lanes in Mt. Joy.

Forty girls competed in the tournament and after five qualifying rounds, the Comet junior found herself in fifth place with a 975 pin total, exceeding a top six finish needed to advance. Warwick's Taylor Miller (1024) topped the qualifying rounds and eventually claimed the district crown.

Smith opened the afternoon portion of the tournament with a 12-pin victory over Elco's Morgan Kline who finished fourth in the qualifying rounds but then battled Miller in the semifinals. Smith fell short 190-145.

"Morgan was the L-L champ by a mile," noted head coach Chris Vital. "She opened with four strikes in a row and Corinne had two spares. She was down by 30 in the blink of an eye. I told her she needed to try something different, change balls. She was reluctant but made the switch and then threw six of the most perfect strikes I have ever seen," he continued. "You can never believe you are beaten. This was an awesome comeback."

Also competing were Eva Brubaker (10th, 952), Lacey Slaymaker (11th, 923), and Kayla Wasche (12th, 904).

"Four of the top 12 bowlers were from Penn Manor," praised Vital. "That's a good omen for our next tournament, Regionals, where we need to finish top six as a team and top 12 individually to qualify for states. The girls are ranked second on the east side of the regional bracket."

Representing the boys squad was Josh Stock who opened with a 192, 185 and 238 before struggling over the last two games. He finished in 31st place.

"Josh got off to a good start but lost a bit of mental toughness down the stretch," said Vital.

WRESTLING

Clawson and Evans, both juniors, represented the Comets at the PIAA 3A South Central/Regional wrestling championships at Spring Grove High School February 24-25 but both fell short in punching their ticket to the big dance.

Clawson, wrestling at 121, quickly advanced to the quarterfinals, pinning West York's Nathaniel Brown in 1:37 in the opening round. He used that momentum to hang a 4-2 decision on Cael Rossi (Lower Dauphin) breaking a 2-2 tie in the second period with an escape with 28 seconds remaining and using a third period escape to cap the scoring.

"Travis wrestled a smart match against Rossi," noted head coach Brandon Vernalli. "We've seen him a few times this year but this is the first time they've wrestled each other."

Clawson faced Daniel Boone's Dean Houser, the eventual champ, in the semifinals. Clawson led 5-2 in the first period but struggled in the second, falling behind 8-6. Houser used three takedowns and a reversal, and gave up just three escapes in the third to advance with a 16-12 decision.

"That was an exciting, back-and-forth match against a returning PIAA fifth place medalist," said Vernalli. "Travis just fell a little short."

Needing a consolation-semifinal victory to guarantee a trip to states, Clawson came up empty, suffering a 1:29 fall to Elijah Hewitt (Northeastern). Hewitt faced Warwick's Marco Tocci in the battle for third and dropped a 10-0 major decision.

"That was a tough one," said Vernalli. "There was no doubt in my mind that Travis was the better wrestler that match. It was tough for Travis. Last year he finished fourth and qualified for states. I think the 121-pound weight class was by far the toughest in the regional tournament, if not the entire state this year. I'm confident he will bounce back and come back stronger next season."

Evans' tournament was a bit shorter. In a 107-pound weight class where the top four place winners were freshmen, Evans was pinned by both Justin Adams of York Suburban, the eventual sixth place finisher, and Red Land's Sam Culp.

"Riley had a tough weekend but wrestled well," said Vernalli. "This was his first regional tournament so now he has the experience of wrestling at a higher level. That will push him for his senior campaign."

GIRLS' BASKETBALL

The girls' basketball team wrapped up the 2022-23 season with an end-of-the-year banquet that honored seniors Sheridan Charles, Brin Groff, and Izzy Kligge.

Groff was the team's second leading scorer with a 5.68 average and was their top three-point shooter, connecting 23 times for the season. Kligge averaged 5.41 ppg and dished out a team high 2.1 assists per game and snagged 2.9 steals per game.

Charles came off the bench and shot 70% from the foul line.

"I think we improved quite a bit offensively as the season went on," said first year skipper Mike Glackin. "We started off barely scoring in the 20's and our final average was about 32 ppg. Our turnovers improved as well, going from 25 per game for the first half of the season to 18.5. Still too many, but a big difference."

The Comets, with four freshmen running through the rotation, finished the season with an overall record of 5-17 and went 1-9 in Section One. Four of those losses were by seven points or less, including a pair of one-point defeats (Exeter and Cocalico).

"I think the highlight of the year was knocking off Hempfield on the road," Glackin said. "And I thought we played everyone in our section better the second time around, except Hempfield, which is also a sign of improvement.

"In general, I think we got the most out of each other this year," he added. "Everyone did their best."

Freshman Joelle Kroesen was the top rebounder, hauling in 4.8 per game while freshman Lilly Rineer led in scoring with a 6.2 ppg average. Carly Groff, a sophomore, finished with the highest shooting percentage at 32.