By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Seaman's girls and Washburn Rural's boys earned bragging rights in Friday's third annual Topeka Shawnee County Bowling Championships at Gage Bowl, with the Vikings winning their third straight girls team championship and Rural repeating as the boys champion.
Seaman girls bowling won its third straight city title Friday at Gage Bowl, putting four bowlers in the top six places individually. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Washburn Rural won its second straight city bowling team title Friday at Gage Bowl. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Individually, Seaman sophomore Leah Crawford shot a 661 three-game series to win the girls title by 36 pins while Topeka High junior Adrian Meraz Jara shocked the boys field with a 700 to win by 16 pins.
Seaman's girls won the team title by a 3,293-2,970 margin over Washburn Rural, including the four Baker format games, as the Vikings put four bowlers in the top six.
"The girls have really been pretty solid all year,'' Seaman coach Bob Benoit said. "When they get to striking they seem to feed off of each other. I'm really pleased with where they're at. We've just got to clean up the spares.
"Their morale's really good. There's no drama with the girls. It's a real pleasure to coach them.''
Washburn Rural junior Megan Glinka and Seaman junior Paige Snyder tied for second with 625 series, with Glinka taking second on a tiebreaker with a 256 high game while Snyder had a high game of 235.
Seaman's Claire LaDuke finished fourth with a 613 series while the Vikings' Ava Carlson finished sixth with a 559 series.
Seaman sophomore Leah Crawford won the city girls individual bowling title Friday at Gage Bowl. [Photo by Brent Maycock/KSHSAA Covered]
Crawford bowled games of 224, 211 and 226 as she broke through for the title in her second city meet.
"Last year at the city meet I placed 12th and it was not my best day,'' Crawford said. "I was very surprised with how I did today.
"Normally when I come to Gage I get very nervous because it's not my favorite place to bowl. So I was pretty impressed with how I did and I was trying to keep my head up the whole entire day.''
Washburn Rural took its second straight boys team title by a 3,517-3,474 margin over Shawnee Heights, including the Baker games, as Matthew Richard led the Junior Blues with a runnerup individual finish with a 684 series.
The Junior Blues also got a seventh-place finish from Jackson Keller (644), a ninth from Andrew Faurot (633) and a 10th-place showing from Cody Spangler (631).
"The titles are nice to have, but we're always looking for improvement each time out as we get closer and closer to the end of the season,'' Washburn Rural coach Jo Ricard said. "We know that there's definitely the potential there for them, and it's a matter of staying focused the whole way through the whole time.
"It's not just only about strikes, but also when that spare piece is there you've got to hit your spares and stay focused on that. And that includes Baker. If you're rolling through the first five frames and we're hot and on, we've got to stay focused. That's something obviously we continue to work on constantly because looking ahead we know how tough our regional is going to look like.''
Boys runnerup Shawnee Heights put four bowlers in the top six, with Trey Donath third (683), Chevy Stallbaumer fourth (669), Evan Jones fifth (664) and Henry Schattilly sixth (645). Kelton Meier finished eighth (638) for third-place Hayden.
Topeka High's Adrian Meraz Jara won the city boys bowling title with a 700 series. [Photo by Brent Maycock/KSHSAA Covered]
But the star of the day was Merez Jara, who shattered his previous personal best by about 170 pins with games of 212, 255 and 233.
"I hadn't been close to that at all,'' Merez Jara said. "The closest I got was like 530. I didn't think I was ever going to get this high.''
In fact, Friday was the first time Merez Jara had placed in a meet.
"I have never placed, ever,'' he said. "I'm just shocked because I would have never expected to be up there.''
TOPEKA SHAWNEE COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIPS
At Gage Bowl
BOYS
Team scores
Washburn Rural 3,517, Shawnee Heights 3,474, Hayden 3,155, Seaman 3,134, Topeka High 2,883, Highland Park 2,852, Topeka West 2,652.
Individual results
1. Adrian Meraz Jara, Topeka High, 700; 2. Matthew Richard, Washburn Rural, 684; 3. Trey Donath, Shawnee Heights, 683; 4. Chevy Stallbaumer, Shawnee Heights, 669; 5. Evan Jones, Shawnee Heights, 664; 6. Henry Schattilly, Shawnee Heights, 645.
Other Washburn Rural -- Jackson Keller 644, Andrew Faurot 633, Cody Spangler 631, Brecken Garrett 608, Parker Dixson 570.
Other Shawnee Heights -- Kaden Evans 613, Braden Evans 585.
Hayden -- Kelton Meier 638, Ashton Litke 604, Andrew Lee 580, Jason Ahlstedt 559, Reece Renyer 537, Levi Endsley 422.
Seaman -- Dylan Hunt 589, Kyle Hartley 544, Connor Griffin 541, Grayson McConnell 520, Garrett Shaw 514, Max Juhnke 509.
Other Topeka High -- Jayden Wilson 583, Austin Carter 437, Aiden Fisk 378, Will Salters 373, Franklin Jackson 233.
Highland Park -- Isaac Barnes 583, Kayden King 543, Allen McCracken 535, Kevin Patino Juarez 550, Gavin Dominguez 431.
Topeka West -- Brooks Hall 515, Karsyn Whitlock 510, William Wiewald 480, Josiah Perkins 460, Gibson Uhler 457, Sevon Covington 431.
GIRLS
Team scores
Seaman 3,293, Washburn Rural 2,970, Shawnee Heights 2,741, Highland Park 1,924, Topeka West 1,850, Topeka High 1,843.
Individual results
1. Leah Crawford, Seaman, 661; 2. Megan Glinka, Washburn Rural, 625 (256); 3. Paige Snyder, Seaman, 625 (235); 4. Claire LaDuke, Seaman, 613; 5. Kenzie Lawson, Washburn Rural, 592; 6. Ava Carlson, Seaman, 559.
Other Seaman -- Laci Cole 507, Kayla Duncan 478.
Other Washburn Rural -- Camrynn Ahrens 519, Ellen Austin 500, Peyton Lawson 474, Stella Gordon 413.
Shawnee Heights -- Addison VanMetre 534, Tatum Simpson 528, Reese Bell 525, Bailey Liby 495, Emma Wederski 429, Lauryn Valdivia 416.
Highland Park -- Angela McCracken 426, Ra'Lynn Divers 387, Trinity Baldwin 349, Jymmena Soto 316, Rylie Schwinn 259, Shelby Snyder 193.
Other Hayden -- Jenna Henkensiefken 432, Olivia Coyle 335.
Topeka West -- Kirsten Damme 365, Cici Martinez-Valdez 338, Mariah McGee 333, Lily Hutchison 317, Layla Justus 317, McKenzie Worthington 314.
Topeka High -- Madeline Burger 357, Clara Womack 353, Molly Meseke 324, Catherine Fulton 323, Brooklyn Wieland 295, Cameron Brogren 263.
