Fall Wrap-Up: Hershey Athletics Win State and District Championships

Sam Allery and Evan Spinney
November 27, 2018

There’s no better way to start the school year than winning championships.

After a long and rainy fall sports season, Hershey High School has had a very successful run. Most of the teams qualified for the Mid-Penn championship or the District III tournament, including a state championship by the field hockey team. While universal success is hard to come by, Hershey’s athletes gave it their best shot.

Boys Cross Country

Hershey High School’s (HHS) boys cross country team finished their season with an undefeated record. The team raced Mechanicsburg, Lower Dauphin, Red Land, Palmyra, Susquehanna Township, and Cedar Cliff, and came out victorious against each school. They finished fourth in the district championship with Brendan Shea placing 13th overall with a time of 17:03.5.

Girls Cross Country

Similar to the boys team, the girls cross country team also had no losses, completing their season with a record of 6-0. Lead by senior Faith Mark and juniors Katie Jones and Olivia Wilson, the girls placed sixth in districts with Mark Jones and Wilson each finishing in the top 15.

Field Hockey

HHS field hockey finished first in the keystone division with no losses, but an overall record of 10-3-1. The field hockey team had great potential to do well in the Mid-Penn Conference (MPC) Tournament, however athletic directors voted to cancel the tournament for field hockey, as well as both boys and girls soccer. The decision to cancel the tournament was based off of inclement weather causing schools to fall behind in their schedule, according to the MPC website. The Field hockey team was seeded fourth in districts and played in the PIAA division 3A championship on November 17th where they defeated Lower Dauphin 2-1 and claiming Hershey’s first field hockey state title.

Football

This wasn’t it chief. The Hershey football team ended their season at 2-8. Hershey failed to qualify for the postseason. While the season was filled with many defeats, the Trojans did pull of a win at homecoming against Redland for their second win of the season.

Boys Golf

Boys golf set a record of having nine players qualify for the Mid Penn Conference Championship. Additionally, three more boys qualified for the District 3 Championship. Three boys, Nate Shaw, Jonathan Hunt, and Clay Breidenstine finished in the top 20 out of 76 golfers to earn their way to the Championship. However, no one was able to qualify past the first round of play.

Girls Golf

The girls golf team qualified for the state team championship after their District 3 Championship victory. Although they did not have to go against another school’s team – no other District 3 girls golf team qualified – they did have to shoot under 300 and ended up shooting 256. The state team championship match was held on Wednesday, October 24th, and Amanda Gerrish finished 15th in the state.

Boys Soccer

The Boys Soccer team finished with a record of 14-3-1 after a win against Northern York on Senior Night. This earned them second place in the Mid Penn conference, only behind Lower Dauphin. Hershey was seeded fourth for the PIAA District tournament and won the District III Championship. In the State tournament however, they lost to West Allegheny in the quarterfinals.

Girls Soccer

Senior night for the girls team was on Wednesday, October 24th, and finished their season with a record of 7-10-3. Unfortunately, the girls soccer team was one of the teams impacted by the PIAA’s decision to cancel the Mid Penn tournament. They settled with competing in the District 3 M&T Bank Soccer Championship but were eliminated in the first round by Central Dauphin.

Girls Tennis

Talk about dominating the competition. Girls tennis has a current record of 6-0-0 within the Keystone division, and an overall record of 15-3-0. Their record translates to the highest overall winning percentage at 83.3% in the Keystone division. At districts, the doubles teams were seeded fifth overall, but they lost in the first round to the top seeded Manheim Township.

Girls Volleyball

The girls’ volleyball team finished sixth in the Keystone division with a 3-13 record. The season didn’t start out too poorly, but eight straight losses to end the season ended their hopes for the Mid-Penn championship as well as competing in the District III tournament.

Hershey girls Olivia Wilson (left), Katie Jones (center), and Faith Mark (right) racing at 2018 districts on Saturday, October 27. Wilson, Jones, and Mark finished strong enough to individually advance to states. (Flickr/Robert Sterner)

HHS Football falls to LD on Senior Night

Hershey senior boys get pictures with their families on senior night against Lower Dauphin. The team could not hold on but put up a good fight against the Falcons in their 42-25 loss.