WAVERLY – At the conclusion of the Section IV New York State Qualifier, three local bowlers punched their ticket to participate at the State Championship tournament, held March 13-15 at Strike N Spare Lanes in Syracuse.
Greene/Oxford’s Erin Howard and Jacob Funnell will be joined by Norwich’s Cameron Birtch at the New York State Championships after their performance on Friday and Saturday at the Valley Bowling Center in Waverly.
Howard, a junior for the Greene/Oxford girls bowling team, finished as the sixth best bowler overall to earn a spot on the Section IV All-Star team that will compete at the state tournament as a team along with a shot as an individual champion.
The Greene/Oxford junior rolled a nine-game total of 1859 pins, which included a 213 for her highest single game bowled on Saturday.
As a team, the Greene/Oxford girls squad finished fourth in Division II – the small school division for Section IV – with 2631 pins knocked down throughout the day. Coming in just one place behind was their Midstate Athletic Conference counterpart Unadilla Valley.
Howard’s teammate Kayli Willes recorded a single-game high of 193 of her nine games bowled, racking up a total of 1641 for day. Finishing with 1537 pins for the qualifier was Halia Tallett and colleague Brianna Fowlston rolled a nine-game tally of 1267.
Rounding out the scores for the Greene/Oxford girls team was Mikayla Trost with her final score of 1019 pins in seven games.
The Lady Storm’s Gracie Oglesby put together the highest nine-game total for the team, rolling a score of 1641 for the day. Oglesby’s high game was a 170 while teammate Paige Catena registered a 212 single-game high.
Catena ended the day with a total of 1615 pins knocked down as she and Oglesby were the lone two UV members who bowled all nine games.
Brynn Grant, Pyper Kneale, Anji Clark, Phalen Hill and Alicia Grant split the roles for the other three spots on the scorecard throughout the day.
Participating in just one game each were Hill and Alicia Grant, coming away with a 114 and 150 respectively while Clark bowled six games for 918 pins. Kneale finished with a seven game total of 1159 and Brynn Grant capped off UV’s scoring with a 1269 total for eight games.
The Unadilla Valley boys team also took their shot at qualifying for the state championships as a team but placed fourth overall in the Division II rankings with a team total of 3121 pins. Coming away with a team-best 1916 pins was Colin Grant.
Grant’s single game high was a 266, just two pins behind teammate Nick Guller’s 268. Guller racked up a nine-game total of 1897 for the day. Separated by just four pins were the Storm’s Brandon Kneale and Mike Bliss.
Kneale, who finished with a single game best of 236, beat out colleague Bliss’ 232 high single-game total and finished with a 1736 total pin count. Bliss ended the nine-game day with 1732. Will Rumovicz was Unadilla Valley’s fifth bowler and totaled 1684 for the qualifier.
Birtch and Funnell will take part in the New York State Championships as members of the Section IV All-Star team, finishing inside the top 10 individually.
The Norwich senior complied a score of 2005 pins, the fifth best of all bowlers during Friday’s action. Birtch kicked off the day with his 254 score, throwing eight consecutive strikes during the game.
Funnell’s ticket was punched by his 1992 score, the seventh highest of all boys in the section. He and Birtch will be joined by Tyler McNeill of Binghamton, Maine-Endwell’s Noah McNeill and Liam Hadfield and James Pittsely of Susquehanna Valley. Binghamton’s Austin Murray will be the team’s alternate.
Howard will have Sus Valley’s Lyndsie Jicha, Hancock’s Brenna Gleim, Lindsey VanAlstyne of Horseheads, Elmira’s Alex Hutchings and Megan Sturdevant of Corning Painted Post on her team at the state championships. Elmira’s Kayla Avery is the girl’s Section IV alternate.
The athletes will begin practice this week for the March 13-15 weekend.