PREP NOTEBOOK: Northeastern boys win volleyball title at State College Invitational

• The Northeastern boys' volleyball team beat out seven other ranked teams to win the State College Invitational.
• Dallastown finished second in both the boys' and girls' meets at the Ray Geesey Invitational.
• Holden Koons dominated the Y-A League 2-A boys' tennis singles tournament, winning all five matches 6-0, 6-0.

The Northeastern boys' volleyball team took home another tournament championship this weekend.

The Bobcats won the 16-team State College High School Invitational on Saturday, which was littered with top-10 Class 3-A and 2-A teams in the state.

Coach Matt Wilson's outfit won its morning pool, defeating Pennridge and Wilson by scores of 2-0 and tying State College 1-1. 

In the afternoon portion of pool play, which paired the four winners from the morning pools, the Bobcats finished second, tying Greater Latrobe and Hempfield and losing 2-0 to Central York.

Central and Northeastern both earned automatic bids to the semifinals in the tournament round. Northeastern defeated Exeter 30-17 to reach the finals, while unranked Greater Latrobe surprised Central 33-31.

The lost set was the Panthers' first dropped set of the invitational. They had won their first 12 sets.

Northeastern then topped Greater Latrobe 25-19, 25-21 in the finals. Alex Finch and Nate Wilson both had five kills apiece in the championship match. Joel Braswell had three, while Zech Sanderson and Austin Richards both had two. Richards led the Bobcats with 14 assists. Finch had eight digs, while Wilson had seven.

York Suburban also participated in the invitational. The Trojans finished second in their morning pool behind Greater Latrobe and last in the afternoon pool. Suburban wasn't one of the eight teams to qualify for the tournament round.

Eight of the 16 teams entered the tournament ranked by the Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association. Representing Class 2-A were No. 1 Suburban, No. 2 Meadville, No. 7 Lancaster Mennonite and No. 8 Maplewood. The ranked 3-A teams were No. 1 Central York, No. 3 Northeastern, No. 6 Hempfield and No. 7 Exeter. 

Northeastern had previously won its own Bobcat Invitational, and made the finals at the North Allegheny and Koller Classic tournaments, which were both won by Central York. The Koller Classic was held at Central.

Dallastown takes second at Ray Geesey Invitational: It was announced recently that the Dallastown Invitational was going to be renamed the Ray Geesey Invitational going forward, starting with Friday's meet.

The event is now named after the Wildcats' former coach, who first started the track-and-field carnival more than 30 years ago. 

Invitational to be renamed after Ray Geesey

Dallastown placed second in both the boys' and girls' portions of the invitational, with Lampeter Strasburg taking first in both sections of the 11-team event. York Suburban was third in the girls' event, followed by Susquehannock and West York. Susquehannock was third in the boys' standings, followed by West York and Suburban in a tie for fourth.

For the Dallastown girls' team, Lynnethia Shanks took gold in the 100-meter dash at 12.85 seconds and in the 200 dash at 27.15 seconds. Allison Myers finished first in the two-mile at 12:04.13. 

For the Dallastown boys' squad, Israel McLean finished first in both the 100 and 200 dashes.

For the West York girls' team, Tesia Thomas finished first in the high jump at 5 feet. Andrew LaManna led the Bulldogs boys with gold in the high jump. 

Central York's Kaitlyn Thorne and Brenna Leister took first and second, respectively, in the pole vault. For the Panthers' boys' squad, Cole Harris finished first in the 800. 

Katie Wand finished first in the long jump for York Suburban. Freshman Olivia Kay also won gold for the Trojans, finishing the 100 hurdles in 16.44 seconds. For the Suburban boys' team, Cole Adams finished first in the two-mile. 

For Spring Grove's boys' team, Colson Martin took home gold in the long jump. 

Susquehannock's Shelby Derkosh finished first in the girls' 400 run, while Cody McCredie took gold in the boys' 400 at 52.50 seconds. 

Koons dominates Y-A League singles tournament: Heading into the York-Adams League boys' tennis Class 3-A singles tournament this past weekend, it was expected that Dallastown's Holden Koons would finish in first place.

The NCAA Division I James Madison commit was probably also expected to not drop a set. The lefty went a step further, though, and didn't lose a single game. 

He won all five matches 6-0, 6-0, including his win over York Suburban's Parker Lando in the title match. Lando had dropped only two games in his route to the championship contest. Lando won the 2-A league title a season ago as a freshman, before Suburban moved up to 3-A this season.

It was Koons' fourth league 3-A singles crown.

Dallastown had three players in the semifinals. Aside from Koons, Jonathan Burns fell to Lando in the semis after he defeated Red Lion's Cameron Wheeler 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the quarterfinals. Sebastian May lost to Koons in the semis after a 6-4, 6-2 win over New Oxford's Justin Gruver. 

The Class 2-A tournament had similar dominance from two players. West York's Augie Citrone lost only two games in his first four matches, while Delone Catholic's Matt Steinberg lost only four.

Steinberg, the No. 2 seed, defeated the top-seeded Citrone in the finals, 6-2, 6-1. Steinberg defeated Citrone's twin brother, Jack Citrone, 6-1, 6-1, in the semis. 

The doubles tournaments start Monday and end Tuesday. The top seed in the 2-A tournament are the Citrone twins, while the No. 1 duo in 3-A is Dallastown's Burns and May. 

Rams finish second at powerlifting championships: Kennard-Dale High School played host to the Pennsylvania State Coaches Powerlifting Association state scholastic championships on Saturday. 

K-D to host state powerlifting championships

The Rams finished second in both the girls' and boys' competitions. 

The event welcomed 191 wrestlers, nine teams and athletes from 13 schools across the state. 

Reach Jacob Calvin Meyer at jmeyer@yorkdispatch.com.