EAHS indoor track preview

Head Coach: Jeff Harnish, second season. Was the winter track head coach in the 2004 season.

Key returners: 19 returning athletes.
Harnish returns to the helm of the E-town winter track program after serving as head coach in 2004 and inherits a talented group of athletes.

There are 19 returners in all, and each of them brings something different to the team, but one thing they all have in common is experience and leadership, something Harnish said is very important.

“They are all key to the success of our program,” he said. “They are doing a great job getting our new athletes acclimated to the program and I expect them to be very successful at our indoor meets.”

Key Newcomers: 26 new athletes.
As deep and diverse as the returners are, there are even more new athletes to the winter program. Harnish said that many of them come from different sports backgrounds and that there are new athletes from every grade level on the team.

They will provide outstanding depth for the Bears this winter season and give E-town competitive, talented athletes in virtually every event it will compete in. That said, however, there will be an adjustment period for them. They’ll have to get used to the very short indoor season and have only a limited time to master their events before competing.

“I expect them to come together as a team, work hard at practice, learn their event and find success at the meet,” he said.

Key Losses: Caitlyn Eshleman, Caitlyn Fisher, John Romain.
E-town was not hit particularly hard by graduation last year, but it did lose three captains in Eshleman, Fisher and Romain.

Harnish said that their leadership was great and it will be missed. But it’s now up to the deep senior class of this year to step up into those leadership roles.

Strengths: Depth, distance.

According to Harnish, this is the largest winter track team that E-town has a record of. That means the Bears will have very good depth up and down the charts.

That depth should help them in scoring during meets, but it will also help them make each other better in practice, which should translate to success in the winter and spring track seasons.

E-town will also be very strong in its distance events. That success should stem directly from the very successful seasons that both the boys and girls cross country teams had in the fall. Leading the way for the distance events will be Dustin Horning, who qualified for the cross country state meet in the fall.

Weakness: Depth in sprints.
E-town does has some very talented sprinters on its roster, but they aren’t as deep in this area as Harnish would like. With the amount of possibilities that a large roster brings, that might change, but for now E-town will go in with a smaller number of sprinters.

Outlook: The winter track season is much different that the fall cross country season or the spring track and field season. There are only four meets and there are a limited number of entries in each of those.

“The main goal is to get as many kids competing as possible,” Harnish said.

And the team will also have to travel for each of its meets. The Bears would like nothing more than to be competitive at all four meets it competes in this season, but if nothing else, the sheer number of athletes on the roster should bode well for the spring season.

EAHS Lax coach resigns, new track coach to be hired

I was just looking through the agenda for tonight's E-town school board meeting and came across a few things regarding EAHS Athletics staff that I figured I'd pass along.

The first was the resignation of Matt Reesor, the EAHS head varsity lacrosse coach. According to the agenda, the resignation was effective on July 30. Reesor was only the head coach for one year. EAHS Athletic Director Shane Piper was gone for the day, but I did leave him a message today. If he gives me more info. on Reesor's resignation, I'll pass it along.

I also noticed that Kathryn Tragis, a varsity cheerleading assistant coach for the fall season will have her contract terminated pending school board approval. Again, I'll try and pass along any further information I can get regarding her termination.

A few standard athletic staff hires for 08-09 are also on tonight's agenda. They are:
• Jeremy Adams, as varsity soccer assistant coach I.
• Eric Clair, as varsity football assistant coach I.
• Jeffrey Harnish, as varsity track head coach and winter coed track head coach.

Harnish will replace Bill Vogt, who will not return to head up E-town's track program. I'll try and get with Jeff and get an interview and post something both here and in the print edition about his hiring. Congratulations to Jeff.

11 Bears qualify for Districts

11 members of the Elizabethtown Area High School track and field team have qualified for the District Three meet this weekend at Shippensburg.

Here is a list of E-town's qualifiers along with the events they will be competing in this weekend:

GIRLS:
Bailey Davis – 200M
Kirsten Hayes – shot put
Audrey Bamford – 100M hurdles, high jump, long jump.

BOYS:
Jordan Hallman: 100M, 200M, 4x400 relay
Greg Crawford: 4x400 relay
John Romain – 4x400 relay
Josh McMaster – 400M, 4x400 relay
Larrian Payne – high jump.
Dustin Horning – 1600M
Shane Rosenberry – Shot Put.

Congrats to these 11.

This and that

(Freshman Audrey Bamford will be a Bear to watch at this weekend's Lancaster-Lebanon League Track and Field meet. Photo by Chris Bradley).

Here are a few tidbits I wanted to throw out on a gray Thursday afternoon.

Girls Soccer:
For all intents and purposes, it appears that the Lady Bears will begin play in the District Three tournament on Monday night at home against Governor Mifflin. This is NOT official yet – first round pairings will be released tomorrow. But looking at the latest D3 power rankings, it looks like that will be E-town's matchup for its first district game.

The Mustangs are currently the 21st-ranked team, with a record of 7-7-3. E-town is 12th at 13-3-1. These two teams also matched up in districts last year, with E-town winning 2-1. More on this game in the days to follow (if indeed that is the matchup).

While we're talking about girls soccer, here are a few notes on E-town's loss to CV on Tuesday night in the first round of the Lancaster-Lebanon League playoffs.
• I was impressed by CV's defensive discipline. They limited E-town's amazing ability to possess the ball and put together strings of passes. They also did a good job of against Courtney Peffley and Katie Leverentz (E-town's top 2 scorers), keeping them away from the action as much as possible.
• Memo to whoever makes CV's uniforms: red numbers on a dark blue jersey are extremely difficult to read. Throw in an outline or something.
• I'll tell you, although CV did an excellent job forcing the Bears away from the playing style they are accustomed to, E-town did a great job of playing hard. This is a good group that never gives up and never, ever stops going hard. In particular, Dani Faller plays with her foot on the gas at ALL times in the middle of the field. She was out for the overtimes due to an injury, and her presence was missed. She is definitely a full-throttle player.
• CV may have been organized on defense, but they weren't very aggressive in the midfield. E-town routinely beat them to 50/50 balls.
• I think the loss to CV is just a setback for this E-town team. They are a talented bunch, and have what it takes to do well in districts and possibly get to states. If only they could avoid those pesky overtime games.
• Here's a scary thought: E-town has only TWO seniors on this team – LJ Funck and Erin Kurtz. Funck has been the team's rock on defense for years and will be tough to replace next year, but the Bears will be scary good next year as well.

Track and Field
The L-L meet is tomorrow (although the weather report doesn't look promising). Things get underway at Hempfield at 4 p.m. and continue Saturday at 10 a.m.

On the girls side, expect big things from Audrey Bamford in the high hurdles, high jump and the long jump. She'll qualify for districts in at least one of those events, and possibly all three of them.

Here is a list of the E-town girls that are in the top six on the L-L League Honor Roll, as of Sunday, May 4.

100: 6. Ann Romanuaskas, 12.6 (leader at 12.1).
100 Hurdles: 3. Audrey Bamford, 15.4 (leader at 15.2).
400 Relay: 5. Bailey Davis, Theta Cleis, Chelin Gallagher and Amanda Hershey, 52.3 (leaders at 50.3).
Shot Put: 5. Kirsten Hayes, 37-3-1/2 (leader at 39-5).
Long Jump: 3. Audrey Bamford, 16-10-1/2 (leader at 17-9-1/2).
High Jump: 5. Audrey Bamford, 5-3 (leader at 5-6).

For the boys, here is the L-L Honor Roll (again, as of May 4). Expect big things from Jordan Hallman, Dustin Horning, Larrian Payne, Josh McMaster.

100: 2. (four-way tie) Jordan Hallman, 10.8 (leader at 10.6).
200: 3. Jordan Hallman, 22.2 (leader at 21.9).
1,600: 2. Dustin Horning, 4:28.7 (leader at 4:19.03).
1,600 Relay: 3. John Romain, Greg Crawford, Josh McMaster, Jordan Hallman, 3:27.32 (leaders at 3:20.05).
High Jump: 5. Larrian Payne, 6-4-1/4 (leader at 6-11).


One last thing. I really have no qualms with giving one of my "competitors" a plug when they write a good piece. Ed Gruver of the Intelligencer put out a nice story today on Erick Baker and the EAHS baseball team. Here's a link.

Nice story by Ed on a great kid.

That's all for now, E-town. Until next time, stay classy.

Cheers.

Catching up...again

(Katie Leverentz is having a heck of a season for the Bears, with nine goals in 11 games.)

Whew....that's the typed version of me taking an exhale. Last spring, I didn't have this blog, and I didn't realize how crazy the spring sports season can be – which explains the bit of neglect to the blogosphere lately. For that, I apologize. I'm still working on how to juggle covering all of these spring sports (there's a lot), working on my horrendous golf game (getting better...barely) and trying to keep up with this blog (I'm a failure, I know). But I'm getting there, so bear with me, please.

Enough of my whining and excuses, though, here's a brief take on the EAHS sports teams. And I'll do my best to get back to daily updates. Cross my heart.

BASEBALL:
Tough loss for E-town on Wednesday, falling 5-0 to McCaskey after two nice wins over Cedar Crest and Hempfield. The Bears have three more Section One games ahead of them, starting today with Penn Manor, before getting back into Section Two contests. They're still very much in the section race, and should be in it until the end. Circle your calendars for next Friday, when E-town hosts Ephrata – that'll be a big one.

SOFTBALL:
Anna Libby keeps hitting bombs and the Bears keep winning. Libby hit two more on Wednesday, including a grand slam, giving her six on the season as E-town improved to 6-2 in league play. They are also very much in the thick of the Section Two race, although Solanco looks amazingly tough. Monday, May 5 will be the big E-town vs. Solanco game at 7 p.m. in the park. But there are seven games between now and then, and the Bears have to keep hitting to make that game that much more important.

GIRLS SOCCER:
Another team that just keeps winning. They've won three straight now, following that tough 1-0 loss to L-S in overtime – still their only loss of the year. They've scored more than three goals in a game only once this year and have to start putting up bigger numbers on offense, but that defense is amazing. They might only need two or three goals a game. Tuesday, April 29, they host L-S on senior night (don't forget to pick up your Chicken BBQ tickets for that night as well), as 7 p.m. in Thompson Stadium. HUUUUUUGE game for the Bears, who are two points behind L-S for the section lead.

Track:
Both teams are doing very well this season, with the boys at 3-1 and the girls at 2-2 in the section. Don't be surprised to see quite a few E-town athletes doing very well at the L-L meet on May 9-10, the District Three meet on May 16-17 and even the PIAA meet on May 23-24.

Boys Volleyball:
Break 'em up! The Bears have won three straight matches with a third place finish at the Red Knights Invitational sandwiched in there as well. They've won their last two by 3-0 margins and are getting better and better as the season progresses.

Boys Tennis:
The Bears fell to Cocalico on Monday, which was essentially a match for the Section One title, but are still a very respectable 9-2 with the L-L flight tourney coming up April 21-28.

OK, enjoy the weekend, and the weather. I'll be out shanking golf balls if anyone needs me.

More attention will be payed to the blog starting Monday. I give you my word.

Cheers.

Catching up

Hello out there, did you guys miss me this week? I missed you. C'mon, you missed me a little bit, right? Suuure you did.

My apologies for the lack of posts this week, we've been working to get out a special insert that will be coming in the paper on the 10th, and also working on our free mailing. That's right, EVERYONE in our coverage area will be getting a free copy of the Chronicle mailed to your house on the 10th. Didn't know it was your lucky day, did you? So I'm trying to make this week's issue look as nice as possible to lure those of you who aren't subscribers (tsk, tsk) into getting a subscription.

But enough of the excuses. After all, excuses aren't welcome here at The Bear's Den. So let's take a journey around the land of EAHS spring sports and update you on how the Bears are doing, in case you were wondering. Also, I'll have a couple of posts later today about some other things. I'm sure you'll be waiting with baited breath.

Baseball:
E-town tasted defeat for the first time yesterday, losing to Ephrata 9-1 to fall to 4-1 overall. The Bears outhit the Mounts 7-5, but couldn't seem to get those RBI hits that are so crucial. The Bears were supposed to play defending Section 2 champ Conestoga Valley today at home, but that game has been postponed until Tuesday at 4:15 p.m. I'll have coverage of that one in this week's paper. It'll be a good tune up for Wednesday's showdown with Solanco. I'll have something on that here on the blog.

The Bears have four games in five days next week (depending on weather), and it could be a huge stretch for them. They start at Garden Spot Monday, host CV Tuesday and Solanco Wednesday and round out by hosting Cedar Crest Friday. This is where deep pitching staffs become the strength of a team. Trust me, it's a luxury for coach Telenko to have guys like Preston Faith, Erick Baker and Steve Buller to start in ball games for his team. Anyway, big week for the boys next week.

Softball:
Hello, E-town offense. Welcome back.

After scoring 6, 4 and 4 runs in their first three games (and going 1-2), the Bears' bats have exploded for 11 and 10 runs in their past two games, both blowout wins over section opponents. E-town is now back over .500 at 3-2 overall and 2-0 in Section Two. On Wednesday night, the Bears blanked Cocalico 10-0 behind two home runs from all-star shortshop Becca Bigler and one homer each from Anna Libby (who's having a monster year at the plate by the way) and senior Kara Hernley.

Since E-town lost that tough 13-inning game against Donegal back on March 26, the Bears have outscored their opponents 21-1. That's how you bounce back from a tough loss.

They were supposed to play CV today, but that game has been pushed back to Tuesday, which means the girls will also play four games in five days – Monday vs. Garden Spot, Tuesday @ CV, Wednesday @ Solanco and Friday @ Cedar Crest. Like the baseball team, E-town's got good pitchers, which will be important for them in tough weeks like this one. Jillian Ditzler and Tricia Stone are an excellent 1-2 punch and their play will be huge this week for the Bears.

Girls Soccer:
Another week, two more wins for the Bears. Ho hum. They're still unbeaten at 5-0-1 and have looked stellar so far. Defense is their strong point, but the offense has been there for them the past two games.

On Tuesday, they were staring at a 2-0 hole at halftime against Garden Spot and rallied to score four goals in the second half for a 4-2 win. And last night against Lebanon, they absolutely dominated. They outshot the Cedars 33-0 and won 3-0. First off, to shoot 33 times in a soccer game is amazing and to hold a team without a shot OR a corner kick on top of that is pretty much the definition of dominating.

Three good tests await E-town next week – @ Ephrata Monday, @ L-S Wednesday, and home vs. Manheim Central Friday under the lights. If the Bears are still unbeaten after that stretch, their confidence will be sky-high, and deservedly so.

Boys Track:
The boys started their week with a relatively close 80-2/3 to 69-1/3 win over Ephrata on Monday to move to 3-0. Dustin Horning has been excellent in the 800 and 1,600 events and won both again on Monday. Josh McMasters also won two events. The Bears also got good efforts (again) from Jordan Hallman, Larrian Payne, John Romain and Greg Crawford. They've got a lot of good athletes that are very good at a lot of different events, and that's been evident so far this year.

E-town did lose its first meet of the year on Thursday, however, falling to Hershey 80-70. Winning for E-town were Romain, Horning (twice), Hallman, Chad Barninger, Shane Rosenberry, Payne (twice) and Crawford.

Girls Track:
The girls tasted their first defeat this year on Monday, losing to Ephrata 90-60. Despite the loss, there's a lot to be excited about for the Bears. Freshmen Audrey Bamford, Bailey Davis and Ann Romanauskas have been stellar and their upperclassmen have also been steady. Against Ephrata, the Bears got wins from Romanauskas, Bamford, Kirsten Hayes and Amy Stoddard.

E-town then tied Hershey 75-75 yesterday thanks to a strong showing by its throwers and jumpers, who outscored the Trojans 48-15. Earning wins were Bamford (three times), Davis (twice), Kayla Koser, Aubrey Reider, Kelly Sebzda and Caitlyn Eshleman.

Boys Volleyball
After a strong 2-0 start, E-town is now 2-2, losing both matches this week.

They fell to Garden Spot 3-0 on Tuesday and lost to Lancaster Mennonite 3-1 last night. Zach McElheny, David Kreiser, Connor Toews and Michael Cicero have been strong so far for the Bears, who are already halfway to matching last season's win total.

Lacrosse
The boys got back underway this week after a 10-day layoff between games. They lost to CV 11-8 on Tuesday night in a close game. CV outscored E-town 5-1 in the third period to pull ahead and beat the Bears. E-town got two goals from Randy Groff and one each from Matt Frye, James Bard, Corey Faus, Ganan Keck, Phil Roeder and Josh Ginder.

Last night E-town ran into a very talented Warwick squad and lost 12-4, getting goals from Keck, Roeder, Groff and David Latimore.

They aren't playoff contenders yet, but you can definitely see improvement in the program.

Boys Tennis:
The Bears remained undefeated under first year head coach Chip Diem with a 7-0 beating of Warwick in their only match of the week.

In singles, Alex Trimble, Colton Brown, Michael Sweigart, Drew Winey and Peter Davis all won. In doubles, Brown and Sweigart and Trimble and Winey won their matches. The Bears are now 4-0. They were supposed to play today as well, but that match was been moved to Tuesday at 4 at home against Penn Manor.

EAHS round-up

(Preston Faith and the Bears have been tough so far this season.)

Sorry for the lack of posts the past couple of days, but I'm back now, so lets take a look at how the EAHS spring sports teams have fared over the past week or so.

Baseball
We knew that E-town had strong pitching going into the season and, so far, their hurlers have really been dominant. On Monday, Preston Faith pitched a complete-game two-hitter as E-town beat Carlisle 5-2 and Erick Baker followed that up with a complete-game three-hitter yesterday as the Bears beat Donegal 7-3. Pitching is a major reason why E-town is off to a 3-0 start, but E-town has also played solid defense behind those pitchers and it hitting well. The Bears have at least seven hits in all three games so far this year.

I think that 10 run outburst in their first game that helped them beat Hershey was a big momentum builder for this team and that they are going to be tough for anyone in Section Two to beat.

Softball
E-town has had some defensive issues the past two games and have lost them both,to fall to 1-2 on the season. On Monday, E-town committed eight errors in a 7-4 loss to Carlisle and yesterday, E-town had eight errors again in a tough 13-inning loss to crosstown rival Donegal. The Bears have plenty of power in the lineup (Anna Libby has 2 homers and Becca Bigler has one) and have strong enough pitching to limit teams to low run totals, but they've got to clean up their defense. I think they will and that they'll get back on track beginning on Monday at Ephrata.

Girls Soccer
E-town is 2-0 now, after beating Solanco 2-0 on Tuesday afternoon. That powerful E-town defense flexed its muscle on Tuesday, limiting Solanco to just two shots. The Bears probably aren't going to put up six or seven goals a game, but they have enough offensive weapons to score three on any given night and that will be enough to make them tough to beat, especially with their defensive ability.

Track
Well, color me impressed at the boys and girls track teams. They looked good on Tuesday and both beat Donegal pretty handily. The boys have some serious sprinters on that team and if you blink during their 400 relay race, you'll miss them. They're that fast. But I think what will make them good this year is their depth. They have talent everywhere – throws, distance, jumps, hurdles, pole vault, sprints.

As for the girls, they looked good as well. Donegal won the majority of the sprinting events, but E-town controlled the throwing and jump events. It's a good sign for the Bears to see some freshman girls like Audrey Bamford and Ann Romanauskas win events at their first varsity meet.

Boys Tennis
The boys have started with two victories. (Side note: E-town's strong athletic year has continued through at least the start of the spring. As of today, the eight EAHS varsity teams have a combined record of 11-3 – with six unbeaten teams. Granted, it's still VERY early, but that a good start nonetheless. And now that I've jinxed them, expect a losing streak from everyone. Hey, just look at my NCAA brackets. Actually, don't, it's embarrassing. Sorry, I'm rambling). E-town gutted out a 4-3 win over Hempfield on Monday to start their season, and dominated McCaskey 7-0 on Tuesday to move to 2-0.

Boys Volleyball
E-town is 1-0 thanks to a 3-2 win over Ephrata on Tuesday. The Bears won the first two games before dropping the next two and sending it to a fifth game. In the fifth, E-town rolled 15-9 to secure the win. Michael Cicero had 17 kills and David Kreiser had six blocks.

Now that you're up to speed, I'll try and post more frequently to avoid long, borderline incoherent posts like this one. Back later today with track and volleyball season previews.

Until next time, stay classy Elizabethtown.

Cheers.