No. 1 East Shore athletes accounted well for themselves at the PIAA track and field championships held May 24-25 at Shippensburg, led by the record-setting performance by the Palmyra girls’ 4 x 800 relay team of Olivia Farabaugh, Miranda Salvo, Maria Tukis and Katie Dembrowski. Defending champ Ibn Short of Milton Hershey had to settle for sixth in the AAA boys' high jump at 6-6, while top-seeded Tim Moses of Palmyra tied for third in the AAA pole vault at 14-6.
No. 2 Running the anchor leg, Dembrowski got passed in the stretch but fought back to win in 9:13.71 to lower the Palmyra school record for the fourth straight weekend. The Cougars also won Mid-Penn and District 3-AAA championships in the past month, just as Tukis, Salvo and Farabaugh did last fall in cross country. Dembrowski was an All-Big 11 field hockey player.
No. 3 Other top performances in the PIAA-AA meet were turned in by Bishop McDevitt’s Anna Bailey with a bronze medal in the javelin with a school record throw of 142-9. Other Crusadermedals went to Sara Miller (1600), Rikka Olson (pole vault), Kameko Webb (triple jump) and the 4 x 100 relay team of Webb, Kristen Melynk, Imani Crowder and Rachel Pitman.
No. 4 Palmyra grad Will Haus played an important role in helping the Duke lacrosse team win the NCAA championship May 27 with a 16-10 win over Syracuse in Philadelphia. Haus, a sophomore defensive midfielder who is the son of Lebanon Valley College coach John Haus, played in all 21 games this season for the Blue Devils, who overcame a 2-4 start to finish 16-5 on the year.
No. 6 Amanda Homrighausen pitched Central Dauphin past Conestoga Valley 5-1 in the District 3-AAAA quarterfinals at Elizabethtown Community Park on May 23. Shortstop Halle Rose doubled in two first-inning runs and Renee Foster and Alex Cunkle had hits as coach Ken Williams’ club ran off to a 5-0 lead after two innings.
No. 7 Lower Dauphin advanced in District 3-AAAA baseball with a rain-shortened 4-2 win over Warwick on May 23 at Earl Wenger Field in Fredericksburg. Falcons’ opponents have gotten double trouble this season from twins Jake and Jason Shellenberger, who are juniors. Senior Marshall Kiessling got the win on the mound for LD.
No. 8 In the district semifinals May 29, Lower Dauphin rode the pitching of sophomore Blair Lewis to a 6-2 win over McCaskey at Earl Wenger Field, while Central Dauphin pulled the upset with a 2-1 win over Cumberland Valley at Messiah, putting both in the district finals.
No. 9 Susquehanna Twp. saw its softball season end on May 23 with a 11-1 District 3-AAA loss to No. 2 seeded Donegal at Lebanon Valley College. The Indians were held to one hit, a Paige Morrow RBI line-drive single to right center. In AA, Bishop McDevitt managed just three hits in a 10-1 season-ending loss to No. 1 seeded Brandywine Heights on May 25 at Millersville.
No. 10 The LDC City Islanders U-15 boys’ soccer club, coached by John Abe, beat previously unbeaten Columbia, S.C., to win the Atlantic Soccer League with a record of 7-1-1. Palmyra’s Robbie Hanosek scored four of his team’s seven goals in capturing the Columbia Invitational, advancing LDC to the ASL finals June 22-25 in Greensboro, N.C.