COLUMBUS — First came the scores; then came the tears.
For seniors Brooke Tucker of McKinley and GlenOak’s Rachel Young, Saturday marked their final tournament appearances representing their schools.
But for Wooster sophomore Abbie Leiendecker, this was appearance No. 1 at Wayne Webb’s Columbus Bowl with two more years to go.
The three area bowlers participated individually during Saturday’s OHSAA Division I Girls State Bowling Championships. Each of the three was expecting more of herself that the scores indicated.
Young started the day by falling in the center’s parking lot and injuring her hip and right hand. She concluded it with a 547 series, 39 pins better than a year ago during her first state appearance in 26th place. She had a high game of 196.
“I really don’t know what went wrong. I was getting a lot of bad breaks and missing a few spares that kind of brought my scores down,” said Young, sporting bandages on her pinkie and ring finger from her fall. “The right hip started to hurt a bit, but the hand was’t bothering me a whole lot, although I did tear some skin on the one (pinkie).”
After 181 in Game 1, Young found something to her liking on the left lane after the move to another pair. But the right lane remained a problem.
“The left lane, I could hit it perfectly. The right lane, I couldn’t hit my mark. I was tugging it inside and it was going heavy,” said Young, who will bowl for Walsh University next season. “We had to try to figure that out.”
Young had simple goals coming to Columbus: score better than a year ago and place higher. She achieved both.
“I wanted to see how much I’ve improved, which I definitely did,” Young said. “I’m going to do a bunch of tourneys during the summer to improve more and try to get used to Motiv equipment, which is Walsh’s sponsor, and transition to it.”
EMOTIONAL TIME FOR TUCKER
Tucker was making her third state appearance, but only the first as an individual.
Her best performance came a year ago when McKinley advanced as a team and she finished fourth overall with a 616 series and was first team All-Ohio. She had 535 as a sophomore to finish 34th and 534 on Saturday to finish in a tie for 36th overall after claiming both sectional and district titles.
“I just don’t know what happened,” an emotional Tucker said. “I thought I had everything in place after practice. Maybe I just got too far into my head today.”
After struggling to a pair of 160 games early, Tucker had seven strikes in Game 3 en route to a 206.
“After watching everyone else playing similar lines, the lanes started to really break down,” Tucker said. “I moved more inside and just went back to playing the original line I always play.
“I don’t know what changed the third game. I ended up staying where I first played during the end of the second game … maybe it was little more inside.”
Asked if it was different bowling as an individual, Tucker slowly nodded.
‘It wasn’t terrible, but it was different without them around,” she added.
Tucker doesn’t plan on attending college at this point. Asked about more tournaments, she responded, “maybe, but I will be bowling in leagues and everything for sure.”
BOWLING ALONE
Leiendecker agreed with Tucker that bowling as an individual was different.
“That kind of threw me off a bit. I didn’t have anyone to keep the positive energy going there that I had during the season,” said Leiendecker, who finished with 534, including 213 during her final game, to finish tied with Tucker in 36th place (she gets 36th do to high game tiebreaker; Tucker is 37th).
“I just didn’t have that team aspect to lean on and I missed it.”
The sophomore admitted disappointment in her performance, particularly in Game 2 when she had 142 with four open frames.
“I was losing the look that I had at the beginning of Game 1 and it went downhill in Game 2,” Leiendecker said. “I was getting caught and I couldn’t get the ball to go out. When I finally did, I wasn’t carrying and, by then, it was the end of the game.
“The last game, I changed to a ball that didn’t hook as much. I just threw it hard and hoped and got 213 out of it, but that’s not enough obviously.”
NOTEBOOK
STATE CHAMP. Amherst Steele right-hander Makayla Velasquez, who shot 778 during sectional play at Rollhouse Lanes in Mentor, claimed the state title with a 664 series, one pin ahead of runner-up Payton Hargrove, a Westerville Central junior left-hander who bowled as an individual. Defending state champion Jenna Stretch, a Kenston senior, finished fourth with 639.
ODDITY. Four Green bowlers — Elena and Veda Hughes and Marissa and Madison Perrine — finished 19th through 21st in the final individual standings with series of 559 through 553, the two Perrines tying at 553.
FALLING SHORT. Amherst Steele, despite having the state individual champion, missed the cut to the final eight by just four pins after rolling a 416 Baker System series, including a 128 in its first of three. Lewis Center Olentangy was 10th, missing by eight pins after shooting a 137 in its final Baker game.
RALLY: Troy, which was making its 12th state appearance, was 30 pins out of the cut in 13th place heading into the Baker games. The Trojans rolled a tourney-high 588 Baker series to vault into fifth place and make the cut.