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Lax Teams Compete in L-L League Finals

BY ARA GRIGORIAN

The Hempfield girls’ and boys’ lacrosse teams both squared off against Manheim Township in the LancasterLebanon League finals. The Township girls’ team came away with a 14-8 victory on Thursday, May 12 while in the boys’ championship, Township topped Hempfield 14-6. The matches were played as a doubleheader at Manheim Township with the boys’ match as the nightcap.

Brynne Axe and Kelsea Dague led the Hempfield girls in scoring with Axe finding the net four times while Dague delivered two goals and two assists.

“Kelsea is very dynamic,” said Claudia Ovchinnikoff, the Hempfield head coach. “She is very good at reading defenders, taking advantage of what they’re going to do. She and Brynne are smart lacrosse players.”

Isabelle Masengarb and Whitney Hershey scored one goal each. Eryn Murphy saved five of the shots on goal for Hempfield.

Township’s Sydney Witmer led all scorers with seven goals. The Black Knights ended a long winning streak by the Blue Streaks the previous week - 101 regular-season league games that Township had won in a row. Hempfield, who wrapped up the regular season 11-0 in league play, had defeated Cocalico 16-6 in the first round of the playoffs on May 10. With the loss to Township, the Knights fell to 17-2.

Township and Hempfield entered the District Three Class 3A playoffs as the first and second seeds, respectively, both earning a firstround bye.

In their quarterfinals match on Wednesday, May 18, the Knights topped Southwestern 12-7, punching their ticket to the semifinals against Governor Mifflin. The Streaks downed Dallastown 21-3, earning a semifinals berth against fourth-seeded Wilson.

Axe led all scorers with six goals and an assist in the district playoff game while Hershey netted two goals and assisted on two more.

“Brynne is our ‘whatever you ask her to do’ player,” Ovchinnikoff said. “In some of our games, she’ll win 10 or 11 draw controls; not too many players can win that many.”

Masengarb also scored two goals while Dague and Makenzie Warfel each scored once.

The boys’ league championship match was 3-3 after one quarter. Township outscored Hempfield 8-2 over the next two periods.

Zack Antesberger led Hempfield offensively, scoring two goals and dishing out one assist. A.J. McAlpine also recorded an assist while Cole Gibbons, Jason Hilton, and Stephen Pitts each netted one goal.

Of the 29 shots on goal by the Blue Streaks, Matt Wiest saved 15 for the Knights.

Garrett Campagna finished with four goals and two assists to lead the Streaks as they improved to 15-3 on the year. Hempfield fell to 13-4.

BOYS VOLLEYBALL

The Warwick boys’ volleyball team had some unfinished business last season and the season before that. Leaving a team hungry for a championship for consecutive seasons proved costly as Warwick defeated Hempfield 3-1 on Monday, May 16, in the L-L League title match at Cocalico.

In fact, the Knights made the Warriors crave this even more when they downed Warwick 25-20 in the opening set. Every one of the next three sets were hard-fought, close finishes with Warwick winning 29-27, 25-19 and 25-21.

Hempfield was going for its 25th league trophy. Warwick earned its first.

Dante Keener led the Knights with 12 kills while Cole Overbaugh, Aiden Beiler and Parker Wolfe, who also recorded four blocks, each registered 10 kills. Caden Bonner dished out 44 assists and Mason Orth finished with 20 digs.

Kyle Charles (15 kills), Jacob Lobb (13 kills) and Adam Gingrich (17 assists) were among the leaders for Warwick.

The Knights were coming off a 3-0 defeat of Lancaster Mennonite on Friday, May 13, in a league playoff game at Warwick. The scales tipped in Hempfield’s favor in this one with three close sets - 25-20, 25-22 and 25-20 - going the Knights’ way.

Keener and Beiler had nine and eight kills, respectively. Overbaugh added seven kills and two blocks on the night. Bonner distributed 28 assists and Orth served up five aces.

Elijah Lazor led the Blazers with 19 kills, two aces and four blocks.

TRACK

The Hempfield boys track and field team finished fifth with 60 team points only two points behind fourth-place Ephrata at the L-L League Track & Field Championships which were held at Hempfield on Friday and Saturday, May 13-14. McCaskey finished atop the boys’ team standings with 100 points.

Aiden Hodge earned two gold medals on the day, winning both the 1600- and 3200-meter events with respective times of 4:16.58 and 9:16.89.

Also helping the team with its strong finish was Logan Muhlberg’s second-place (50.88) finish in the 400-m and Chris Titter’s time of 1:59.81 in the 800, which earned him seventh place.

In the relays, the Knights had two fourth-place finishes and one fifth-place finish. They also had three top five finishers in field events.

In the 4x800, the relay team of Tittler, Dale Winand, Ryan French and Sam Freedman took fourth with a time of 8:15.12. The foursome of Xavier Peralta, Diellon Trinaku, Elijah Hinton and Gabriel Benjamin sprinted to a fourth-place finish at 44.08 seconds in the 4x100.

The 4x400 relay team of Tittler, Muhlberg, Sam Meyer and Carson Lieberman had a combined time of 3:30.61, taking fifth.

Ryan Criste earned third place in both the high jump and the long jump, clearing 62 in the high jump, and posting a 22-4 mark in the long.

Brody Weachter came through with a pole vault effort of 11-6, earning fifth overall while Braydon Felsinger’s 40-2.25 triple jump was good for ninth place.

Mia Sheldon had a seventhplace finish in the girls’ 100-m sprint. She posted a time of 17.36 seconds. The 4x800 relay team of Paige Harrington, Callie Herr, Katie Gardner, and Ava Pagano finished 10th in 10:40.52

Photo by Mark Palczewski

Toby Marco handles the ball for the Black Knights in their 14-6 loss to Manheim Township in the Lancaster-Lebanon League championship final at Cocalico on May 12.

Photo by Mark Palczewski

Hempfield’s Isabelle Masengarb drives past Manheim Township’s Calli Campagna during the Knights’ 14-8 loss in the L-L League championship final at Cocalico on May 12.