Category: Sports

Some play to stay in shape, but most are there to get serious.

Rec basketball has been around long before most of the current Penn Manor students were born .

Every year, during the winter, the boys that participate in the aggressive game are anxious to get out on the court and give it their all.

The league consists of multiple teams (Penn Manor students only) who are organized and coached by parent volunteers. With about eight people per team, there are ten games and then the play offs. The season begins at the end of December and ends at the beginning of March.

These two months are some of the students’ favorite time of year.

“Rec basketball is not a sport, it’s a lifestyle,” said player Aaron Lugo.

Lugo says he takes rec basketball seriously because it is very important to him. Lugo lifts in the weight room during the off-season to prepare for the next year.

Austin Richwine plays because he loves the game. Richwine says he doesn’t get too competitive, yet has the right competitive edge for the game.

“It takes a true man to be a rec baller,” said Richwine.

Alex Kirk claims he is not the best player on the team, but he puts in a lot of team efforts.

“I play to get the girls,” said Kirk.

Kirk says he must take rec seriously because it cost $50 for the registration fee.

Harry Manning is not one to express many emotions at all, but on the court he is a different person.

“I mostly just play to stay active, but I am serious sometimes,” said Manning.

One person that has a different outlook on rec basketball is Jeff Ford.

Ford plays only because it is something to do.

“I try to be good but not take it serious,” said Ford.

Others have different goals for the sport.

“I play for the ladies, pride and obviously the bragging rights over all the other kids in the school,” said Spencer Barnett.

Barnett says he is not the best player because his team members are all one that play together.

“Celtics [Barnett’s team]…championship…this year…number one,” predicted Barnett.

Whether playing for the ladies, the bragging rights or the exercise, rec basketball will continue to be a favorite winter past time for boys at Penn Manor.

By Kyle Hallett

Out of 24 events and 24 possible wins, the Tornadoes only stole three from the Comets.

Penn Manor boys and girls dominated McCaskey Tuesday night at home with an amazing score of 113 to 52 for the boys and 129 to 38 for the girls.

The first race was the 200 medley relay where Joelle Williamson, Jillian Heckman, Abby Barley and Danielle Warfel got first place with a time of 2:02.54. The boys came up next and continued the streak getting first with 1:54.10 – a time that got them into districts. That relay consisted of Cooper Lindsley, Travis Wells, Casey Wells and Trevor Byrne.

The girls got first, second and third in the 200 freestyle. Olivia Rineer got first with a time of 2:24.95. Barley came in shortly behind her, and next was Lauren Hillegas.

Jess Burkhart, Heckman, Jenna Reel, Lauren Longenecker, Williamson and Karen Myers all won first in their individual events, giving their team a chunk of points to give them such a magnificent lead.

The only race that the girls didn’t win first place was the 100 backstroke, but they still got out of the pool with second, third and fourth places.

Steven Armstrong, Lindsley, Travis Wells, Casey Wells, Eric Bear and Blake Wales all gave their team many points when they got first place in their individual events.

The boys also got first, second and third in both the 100 freestyle and the 100 backstroke. Casey Wells came in first, swimming the 100 freestyle, with a time of 54.83. Xavier Wingenroth won second and Brian Dunne came in third. Bear got a time of 1:10.87 swimming backstroke. Ryan Dettrey came in next, and Nick Hartley followed with a strong third.

We’ve all heard the saying, “practice makes perfect,” and in this case, the hard work the swim team has put forth after school at practice has surely paid off big time.

By Liz Lawrence

With all the snow being called for,  many Lancaster-Lebanon League games have adjusted their scheduled game times to avoid the heaviest part of the storm.

“I talked to Eric Horst, the meteorologist at Millersville, the snow will start between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m., with the major accumulation between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m.,” said Athletic Director Jeff Roth.

Due to the potential heavy snow, the varsity game will be played at 6 p.m. and the JV team won’t be playing.

“We may make that game up at a future date,” said Roth.

“We made the decision this early because we have a lot of people that we need to contact like refs, vendors, ticket takers, score keepers, security and bus drivers,” said Roth.

No other sports at Penn Manor have been adjusted at this time.

By Liz Lawrence and Brian Dunne

The water was like an ice cube when their dry bodies became engulfed as they dove in for warm-ups.

Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m., the Penn Manor Swim Team went head to head against Conestoga Valley at F&M college. They went into their third dual meet of the season, not knowing what the turnout would come to, only that it would be a close one for both teams. After the last event ended, the score was announced over the loud speaker. Boys: 91-79 CV, and girls: 85-85, a draw.

The 200 Medley Relay event, which opened the meet, lead both the Penn Manor girls and boys team falling behind in points. Both stole second place.

The 200 freestyle event was next, and was a nail-biting one for the swimmers, coaches, and spectators. Penn Manor’s Cooper Lindsley was neck and neck with CV’s Logan Monger for the entire 8 laps. Monger came out on top, but only by .24 of a second. Lindsley’s time being 1:49.95, was dropped from his previous best by a whole two seconds. Brian Dunne added a couple points to the boys score by placing fourth.

Taking first place with a time of 2:30.58 in the 200 IM (individual medley), was Penn Manor’s Joelle Williamson. Jillian Heckman touched the wall immediately after taking second place with a time of 2:30.82.

The last event before the break was the 50 free. Boys took a one, two winning streak by brothers Casey and Travis Wells, making the score 28-34 CV. Girls placed first and third by Jess Burkhart and Jenna Reel, making the CV girls up by only two points.

A fresh start was granted after the break.

Burkhart took first in the 100 free, and following shortly behind was Heckman. Lindsley and Monger battled it out, yet again in the same event, with same outcome: Lindsley after Monger.

After the 500 freestyle event the girls were still down by only two points, boys by six. The 200 freestyle relay turned the meet around, giving a lead to the Penn Manor girls. Heckman, Reel, Lauren Longenecker and Burkhart took first and Karen Myers, Kelly DiCamillo, Laura Wissler, and Danielle Warfel took third, scoring a total of 10 points for the team.

C. Wells and Blake Wales had a one, two streak in the 100 breaststroke event.

T. Wells, Armstrong, Trevor Bryne and Lindsley came out on top in the last event, the 400 freestyle relay, but not changing the final outcome, with CV taking the win.

Girls had an extremely intense last relay. They were under tons of pressure to place first and third. There was a last minute switch to make sure that this would happen. Williamson and Myers were switched. At the end of the meet, the Penn Manor girls did take first by the team of Heckman, Reel, Myers, and Burkhart. They also placed third, but the third place team was disqualified due to an early start. Those few points caused the draw.

“We did have some 9th graders that swam new events last night and did really well. I think that’s going to be a good thing for the rest of the season. We start our section schedule next week,” commented coach, CeCe O’Day.

By Jenna Reel

Penn Manor’s boys basketball team is coming off a hot win and to add to it, Fox 43 TV has chosen Friday’s basketball game against Manheim Township as a high school frenzy “Game of the Week.”  As of now they are both undefeated in Section One basketball.

“Game of the Week” is Fox 43 television station’s weekly pick of five important sporting events in the area. Students can vote for their school’s game at  www.hsfrenzy.com

Penn Manor plans to show why this has been selected as the game of the week.  They plan to come out winners in this showdown of the unbeaten in section 1 basketball.

“Let’s get fired up,”  Penn Manor’s athletic director Jeff Roth said energetically.

Tickets are being sold at all lunches this week for $1 to make sure the gym is filled Friday. Roth is expecting a huge crowd and wants it roaring.

“I want kids who usually don’t come to the games to come and see how fun and exciting the games are,” Roth said.

This week is a pretty tough week for the Comets. They had the tornadoes Tuesday night, Manheim Township Friday and then they head off to Trinity for the weekend.

Trinity is a perennial state power team in basketball.

Roth predicts WGAL TV and Lancaster Newspapers will also cover the game Friday night.  Roth said students will definitely have the opportunity to get on TV if they attend the game.

The Comets and their crowd may be heard all the way to their opponent’s hometown. This is a chance for Penn Manor to really show its school spirit.

By Tyler Funk

Penn Manor’s boys basketball team took on their rivals, McCaskey, on Tuesday night. Many thought it would be a close game but early on it became evident that it would be anything but close.

Penn Manor jumped out to an early lead being led by senior Brian Ramsey. Ramsey had a great game finishing with 24 points.

Landon Alecxih was also a force to be reckoned with scoring 15 points and 10 rebounds.

Once the Comets took the lead, they never looked back.

By halftime, the Comets had a 21 point lead over the Red Tornadoes. The Tornadoes struggled all game to get anything going their way.

While the Tornadoes were having a tough time finding their rhythm, the Comets were in full stride and the scoreboard showed it.

Coming back to the court after half time, the Comets remained hot and by the end of the third quarter they had extended their lead to 38 points.

The game ended much differently than last year’s game with McCaskey, with the Tornadoes winning 91-84. This year’s game, on the other hand, ended with Penn Manor handling McCaskey, 64-35.

Needless to say, McCaskey is looking to prove that this was just a fluke when they come to Millersville for a rematch in 23 days.

The Comets, 4-0 in section, 7-1 overall, now get ready to take on Manheim Township who is tied with them for first place in their section.

The game is set for Friday at Penn Manor at 8pm.

by Brian Sloss

By Ryan Mays-

One game at a time.

The Penn Manor Girls basketball team (3-4) takes on J.P. McCaskey (1-5) Tuesday at 8:00 pm. The game is at home and the “up-and-down” Comets are looking to create a winning streak.

The Comets are coming off  a pretty big win against the Hershey Trojans with a record of (5-2) before the game. Indeed, this was a non-league game, but a 41- over 32-point victory is nothing to sneeze at.

Even though some are predicting a tight game and a win by McCaskey, the Comets hope their better record and their undefeated home court advantage pulls off a victory.

The Tornadoes are coming off of a 59-29 loss to Ephrata, a team Penn Manor beat by two points before Christmas.

It sounds like Penn Manor has an advantage.

When looking at the stats, the Penn Manor girls have 281 points-for( the Comets scored) and 285 points-against(the opponent scored). On the other end, McCaskey only scored 263 points-for and 349 points-against. This is 18 points-for and 64 points-against better in the Comets favor.

Penn Manor coaches no longer have to bug their athletes to turn in grade sheets each week, a new procedure and policy will provide coaches with everything they need to know.

A list of those student athletes who currently have a grade below a 70 percent will be sent to coaches automatically.

An email from principal Phil Gale was sent out Dec. 14 notifying teachers and coaches of the new procedure.

“In an effort to solidify the reporting of grades for our student-athletes…,” stated Gale in the email, “(athletic director) Jeff Roth and (assistant) Cindy Bachman have developed a system of pulling grades from Sapphire on a weekly basis for all student-athletes.”

The email described the new procedure and how it will be handled.

Coaches will receive the list with those athletes who have a grade below a 70 percent. They will then inform the athlete of his or her grade and instruct the athlete to speak with the teacher of the class. This will allow the student to attend tutoring on Thursday or to turn in any missed assignments in order to try and raise their grade, according to the email sent out by Gale.

The email also stated that any athlete with a failing grade on Wednesday must turn in a report sheet to their coach on Friday, having it signed by the teacher, explain why they are failing or identifying that they are passing.

By Friday, if that athlete has below a 60 percent, they will be ineligible the following week to play (Sunday to Saturday).

They then are required to receive an hour of tutoring for each subject they are failing.  Athletes will be giving their coaches a tutoring sheet to verify that they are getting help.

“I think its nice as a teacher and as a coach that I don’t need to fill in and collect a grade sheet for every athlete,” said English teacher and swimming coach, Cece O’Day. “It will make students more accountable for their grades.”

Physics teacher and wrestling coach, Steve Hess, thinks it makes the process easier for coaches.

“I can see who is eligible very easily,” said Hess. “It holds kids accountable.”

“I hope it benefits. The expectations are the same. Its the same policy, just a different procedure,” said O’Day.

Sophomore student, Travis Wells, also has positive feelings towards the new procedure.

“I think it’s a great idea,” said Wells.

By Jenna Reel

Penn Manor showed Ephrata who was king of the mountain Monday.

The girls basketball game was a battle throughout the entire game, as it stayed close even with numerous lead changes. Both teams wanted to get some cushioning because they both knew it was going to be a close one.

Shots didn’t seem to be going their way as the Comets started to fall behind in the first quarter. Ephrata’s defense was playing well with a number of blocked shots and rebounds in the first quarter.

The second quarter was taken over by Penn Manor junior Megan Schlegelmilch. Drawing fouls, and scoring 10 points in the 2nd quarter alone, Manor spirited to the top by one point going into halftime.

The Comets came out in the third quarter a little off balanced. The team was committing turnovers that each player wanted to take  back.

Coach Long wanted them back as well.

The Comets switched to a defense in the third quarter to try and confuse the Mountaineers. It worked for a while as the defense denied the Mountaineers. Until the fourth quarter.

Like both teams predicted after the first half, the game was a close one. Tied neck and neck, both teams fought to spring ahead to assure a win. Not until late in the fourth quarter did the Mountaineers start to pull ahead.

The Comets were down by five with two minutes left as Hannah Willet was wide open for a three. Swoosh.

Cutting the lead down to two, the Comets defense physically “stole” the game from Ephrata, forcing turnovers late in the fourth quarter. The Mountaineers couldn’t maintain the lead as the Comets went ahead by two with a couple seconds left.

Ephrata had a chance to end the game with  a three-point shot put up, but it fell short.

The next game for the Penn Manor girls is at 8 p.m. and falls on December 23 at Lebanon. Lebanon is (1-1) on the season defeating Penn Manor’s rival, the Hempfield Black Knights on Monday.

The Comets won their first game Monday and plan on repeating against a tough non-league game.

By Ryan Mays

Penn Manor swimmers stepped up to the starting blocks with confidence Monday, knowing that they would probably be able to dominate their opponents from Manheim Central.

Monday night at 6 p.m. Penn Manor went into the meet with the mindset that they had a good chance, but they needed to swim every race the hardest they could. The final score for the girls was 107-63 and 112-53 for the boys, in Penn Manor’s favor.

The boys started off strong, making the score 10-2 only after the first event.

Good thing for the announcers who periodically report the score over the loud speaker because swimming is a fast paced sport and during a close meet, it’s hard to tell what team is on top.

The scoring for an individual event is six points for first place, four for second place, three for third, two for fourth and one for fifth. But losing the race doesn’t help the team at all.

“I tell the freshman ‘just don’t get last,'” said head coach Cece O’Day.

In relays, only first, second and third place score points for the team. First place gets eight points, second place gets four and there are two points awarded for third.

At the break, the boys were up by 22 points and the girls had a small lead of eight points.

Both Cooper Lindsley and Steven Armstrong have yet to lose a race this year. Lindsley, 8-0, and Armstrong, 7-0, have asked their coach not to make them swim against each other so they wouldn’t break each other’s undefeated winning streak.

The girls were not on top the entire meet, but luckily Jess Burkhart, Jenna Reel and Lauren Longenecker got first, second and third, respectively in the 50 freestyle, right before the break when the score was announced.

After the break, again the same girls repeated their one, two, three placings in the 100 freestyle.

Joelle Williamson did extremely well in the meet and scored a lot of points for the team. She gave the team 24 points, winning the 200 individual medley,  the 100 backstroke and the 400 freestyle relay, with Reel, Longenecker and Burkhart. She also helped the team get second place in the medley relay, giving her relay a lead as she got ahead swimming backstroke.

The boys ended the meet strongly, winning first and second in the 400 freestyle relay. Armstrong, Brian Dunne, Trevor Byrne and Travis Wells took first place with a time of 4:03.49, and Eric Bear, Nick Hartley, Sam Spearing and Edward Gahring came in soon after them with a 4:44.38.

By Liz Lawrence