The boys' basketball team finished a two-step stretch with wins over Lebanon and Warwick offsetting losses to Ephrata and Elizabethtown.
Conestoga Valley (9-10) needed three extra frames to outlast Lebanon on January 29th, stealing a 91-84 victory after finishing regulation knotted at 66. Cameron Swinton led the way with 31-points, DeMajh Salisbery added 22-points while Austin Wertz (15-points) and Tanner Petersheim (11-points) also hit double figures.
CV made it two in a row with a 74-64 triumph over Warwick on February 1st. The Buckskins trailed by three after one but managed to cut it to 34-33 at the break. A 16-11 run through the third coupled with a 25-19 stretch to close things out led to the 10-point victory. Swinton netted 25, Salisbery added 13 points and Griffen Rishell 11.
Prior to the wins, CV suffered setbacks to Ephrata (53-42) on the 26th and Elizabethtown (62-47) on the 28th. Salisbery netted 15 and 14-points, respectively while Swinton followed with 12 and 13 points.
GIRLS' BASKETBALL
"There's no place like home" might be true for Dorothy while in Oz, but it does not hold the same weight for the Conestoga Valley girls' basketball team. Losses to Ephrata and Elizabethtown dropped the Lady Bucks to 3-4 in Witmer and with another setback to Warwick, CV sits at 7-11 with only a few games remaining.
Against E-town on January 28th the Lady Bears built a 27-10 cushion through the opening 16-minutes. CV chipped away at the deficit, reducing it to 12 over the second half, setting the 48-36 final. Taylor Hehnly (15-points) and Rhiannon Henry (12-points) led the surge, scoring 21 of CV's 26 second half points.
Two nights earlier the Lady Mountaineers handed CV a 47-34 setback, outscoring the Lady Buckskins in all but the final frame. Ephrata did their heavy lifting in the first and third quarters where they held a 30-16 edge with CV's slight 10-8 edge in the fourth setting the final margin. Hehnly enjoyed another 15-point game.
CV kicked off February with a trip to Lititz to battle Warwick. That battle went to the Lady Warriors by a 34-27 final. Warwick used a 10-4 run coming out of the break to turn a tight 17-15 affair into the 17-point win. Hehnly finished with 14-points.
SWIMMING
The regular season officially ended on February 1st for the CV swim teams with a trip to Lampeter-Strasburg. The Pioneers controlled the meet leaving just six total wins for CV and leading to a 75-73 loss for the boy's and a 124-41 setback for the girls.
Jordan Holmes accounted for both of the wins on the Lady Buckskin side, taking the 100-backstroke outright while tying Kara Scranton in the 100-butterfly. For the boys, it was Daniel Ivanchikov leading the way with two solo and one relay win. The junior claimed the 50- and 100-free with Ashton Reese, Dylan Reeser and Rome Lucchese helping to take the 400-free relay. Aidan Campbell picked up one final victory in the 100-breaststroke.
BOWLING
The bowling team inched closer to the end of their regular season with losses to Manheim Township and Warwick putting the Buckskins at 25-59. Ryan Muckle posted the top series in the 7-0 loss to Township on January 28th, rolling games of 211, 180 and 223.
CV fell to Warwick by a 5-2 count on February 1st with Josiah Casler posting the top score. The freshman opened with a 183, closed with a 209 with a 232-middle game, good enough for a 624 series.
RIFLE
When added to the January 25th win over Wilson, the rifle team's wins over Governor Mifflin and Ephrata officially make a winning streak for the Buckskins. CV needed an extra shooter in both matches to secure the win leading to a 588-586 victory over Mifflin on January 27th. William Roland, Ivan Shrom and Adam Zook finished out the bottom of the CV scorers with matching 97s. Grady Ray occupied the top spot with a 100 while Sierra Land (99) and Edison Stauffer (98) settled between the others.
February 1st was the streak's official start date thanks to the 587-585 win over Ephrata. This time it was Zook posting the perfect score while Shrom, Emily Russel and Hunter Kleckner added a trifecta of 97s. Stauffer and Land filled out the scorers with matching 98s.
WRESTLING
The wrestling team reached the 'fun' part of their schedule where they must simultaneously close out the regular season and start the postseason. The balancing act started with a 47-21 win over McCaskey on January 26th and carried over into the L-L Championships on the 28th and 29th but did not get the Buckskins through their District 3-3A Quarterfinal team clash opposite Hempfield on February 1st.
"It was a team goal to qualify for the District Team Championships," said head coach Trent Turner, "but only half of the goal was accomplished," referencing the team's 0-6 mark in the district team bracket. "That was the other half of that team goal that will be left for another year."
Turner pointed to some injuries that helped his squad's upset bid of top seeded Hempfield fall short but added, "I am still proud of a team that on January 14th was 1-4 and who then put together a seven-match win streak to put us in the mix and ahead of a lot of other teams in the district that didn't get this opportunity. We'll grow from the experience."
Conestoga Valley managed just five wins in the 43-16 loss. Trent Ruble was the lone bonus point collector with a major decision at 113. Jonathan Lopez (189), Josue Marente (215), Payton Peace (138) and Keaton Fischer (145) all notched standard decisions.
Against McCaskey, the Buckskins won 47-21. CV claimed eight of the 13 bouts, all coming with bonus points. Luke Morley (120), Bryce Bowman (126), Fischer (145), Luke Needham (152), Abdoul Akala (160) and Nathaniel Kirchner (172) enjoyed pinfall wins while Lopez (189) added forfeit points. Ruble's tech fall at 113 got CV rolling after a forfeit at 106 put them in a hole.
In between those dual matches, the Buckskins traveled to Neffsville for the L-L Championships, finishing eighth in the team standings with eight grapplers ending their weekend on the podium. Fischer missed gold, settling for silver after a loss in the 145 final. Ruble (113) worked his way to fourth after falling out of the championship bracket while Needham (152) and Zander Rider (215) made it as high as sixth. Akala (160), Lopez (189) and Mukhammed Karayev (285) finished seventh while Kirchner (172) wrapped things up in eighth place.
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