As you walk into a bowling alley, just the sound of the ball landing on the lane and the ball hitting the pins brings a smile to your face. Bowling alleys are a place where people of all ages come to have fun. Today’s action was fun for the spectators to watch, but the competitors were looking for OVAC Championships to win.
This year the 4A-5A OVAC Bowling Championships were held at St. Clair Lanes in St. Clairsville. Boys were up first starting early this morning at 8 am. A packed crowd was there as the championship action began. Good job goes out to the OVAC for putting on another great championship event for these student athletes.
Some big scores marked game 1 as Parkersburg South’s Dylan Holliday took the early lead rolling a 255. Following him after game 1 was Kaden Miller (Wheeling Park) 251, Caleb German (Dover) 249, and Shane Arnold (Weir) 248.
Nate Kelly (East Liverpool) the eventual champion took the lead after game 2 and did not look back. He bowled a 258 to tie the high score for the round with Weir’s David Bloomer. Sebastian Lewis rolled a 233 for St. Clairsville one of the tops of the round. Brett Thompson (East Liverpool) 232, Miller (Park) 221, and Fisher Life (Parkersburg South) 221 had the other top scores of game 2.
Catching up with Coach Camp, who runs the event for the OVAC, he mentioned the sport is really growing in the Valley. They are having trouble finding places for the teams to practice and times for them to practice. He said it is a good thing that so many kids are involved, but if there were some more lanes available for the kids it would make it easier for practices and matches. He mentioned that some are now adding middle school teams as well. Again, great for the sport but tough for lane time.
The final game saw Kelly bowl a great game again with a 247, finishing with a 731 series and an OVAC Championship. This was Kelly’s second OVAC title as he was a golfer winner as well. Kris Miller (Dover) rolled his best game and the best game of the round when he rolled a 248. Gavin Maze (East Liverpool) 232, Noah Jock (Buckeye Local) 230, and runner up Bloomer (226 game/704 series) were other top scorers from the round.
As you know we here at ovathletics.com love our food and the concession stand at St. Clair Lanes did not disappoint. Whether it was the pizza coming hot out of the oven or the chicken tenders out of the fryer, you could not go wrong when stepping up in line. This goes with the burgers that were coming off the grill, with cheese, bacon, or even both.
The most exciting scores to watch all day were the boys team scores. It came down to the baker matches to determine the team champion. And what an ending it was with a one-point victory for the Weir Red Riders over the East Liverpool Potters 3,693-3,692.
As the boys finished the girls’ teams started taking over the lanes for the second half of the championship day. The crowd stayed packed, and a lot of the boys stuck around to watch their female counterparts and cheer them on.
Game 1 for the girls saw some great scores to start the lady’s action. Dover’s Jaelyn Feebish came out on fire with a game of 235. Close behind was Addison Rudibaugh (East Liverpool) 226, Natalie Nealey (Dover) 212, and Parkersburg South’s Corissa Snider with a 196.
A name not mentioned with a high score for game 1 was Kaylie Gibson (Dover). She more than made up for it with a 256 in game 2 a game and day high for the girls. Other top scorers for game 2 were Nealey (191), Rudibaugh (190), Allison Curtiss (Parkersburg South) 173, and Shelby Crow (Wheeling Park) 172.
The third and final game of the day for the girls saw some great action and scores. A new single game leader immerged as Danni Riggle (East Liverpool) rolled a game high of 213. This game saw more 200 games than the others, with Rudibaugh (205), Gibson (204), and Nealey (201) all breaking the 200 number.
Kaylie Gibson (Dover) claimed the 4A-5A Championship with a 648 series. Following her in the standings was Addison Rudibaugh with a 621 series. The team championship was not as close as the boys, how could it be? Dover was crowned the OVAC Champion scoring 3,216 to East Liverpool’s 3,098 after the baker matches.
A great thing to watch during both the boys’ and girls’ championships were the way that the teams cheered for each other and encouraged each other during the games. The same goes for the fans in attendance as they watched competitors for other teams knock down spares and strikes, they cheered as if they were their own kids. There was also a togetherness as we see in other sports in the Valley where people know each other and use the event to catch up and trade bowling stories and things to watch for, players and teams. A great cap on a great day brought to us by St. Clair Lanes and the OVAC.
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