AKRON — Boardman didn’t appear in the top nine of the OHSAA Northeast District Division I girls tournament standings until Game 3 of the regular three-game portion.
At that time, the Spartans still were 41 pins out of the cut in ninth place with the six-game Baker System round remaining.
But Boardman coach Justine Cullen remained confident her team could make its fourth straight trip to state.
“All year, that’s been our thing. In the regular games, we always seem to start off slow,” Cullen said. “It takes us awhile to get momentum. When we get into Bakers, we just go.”
The Spartans, still 14 pins out the cut heading into the final two Baker games, threw 184 and 182 to earn the final state spot Monday by just 38 pins over Dover at Stonehedge Family Fun Center.
Perry captured the district title, earning its seventh straight state trip and 10th overall for head coach Joe Altimore III in his 12 seasons, by finishing with 3,720 total pinfall, 58 pins ahead of second-place Green (3,662). It marked the third district title for the Panthers.
They were followed by Tallmadge (3,634) and Nordonia (3,606) —which both will be joining their boys teams in Columbus — North Olmsted (3,483) and Boardman (3,469).
The top six teams and top six individuals who were not members of advancing teams qualified for the Division I state championships, set for 10:30 a.m. March 10 at Wayne Webb’s Columbus Bowl in Columbus.
The district format was three regular games followed by six Baker games with total pinfall determining advancing teams.
RACE FOR SIX
Dover had been in the top six all day until falling to seventh after rolling 159 and 161 in its first two Baker games, allowing Akron Hoban to move up. Boardman remained ninth, 36 pins out of the cut.
“During the three games, we really had a hard time getting any ball reaction. The lanes played really bizarre for us,” Cullen said after the Spartans started the day with a 702. “When you start a little soft and missing spares, it brings you down a little bit and it takes a lot to rejuvenate it.
“But when the lanes break down, like in Bakers, it helps our play. The more they break down, the better we do.”
It didn’t start well in the Bakers as Boardman began with 112, but followed with 227.
Then the Spartans had a 210 to aid their cause in Game 4 to move closer to Hoban. But while Boardman had a solid final block, the Knights shot just 143 and 138 to fall back to eighth. The Tornadoes’ problems came in the first three Bakers with 159, 161 and 156 as they fell 38 pins out of the cut heading to the final two games.
“I really thought we were done after the first (regular) game. But when we were only 41 out after Bakers. I told them this is where we thrive,” Cullen said. “It’s exactly where we want to be and lets go out and do what we do.
“They went out there and answered the call.”
Sophomore Marissa Funk led the Spartans with a 610 series to make the all-tournament team and sophomore Kaitlyn Greenaway added 556 as the Spartans earned their seventh overall state trip, including a state title in 2010. They were sixth last season, losing to Perry in the first round of match play.
PERRY CLAIMS TITLE
Altimore called the Panthers’ district title “amazing.”
“You just want to be the number or better coming in. But when they came down and said we were making up ground, I was shocked,” Altimore said after the Panthers stood third following the opening three games.
“We were grinding along, trying to make good shots, make our spares and keep momentum. We weren’t scoreboard watching. All of a sudden they come down and say we’re 15 back (heading into final two Baker games). And I’m like, back of what, the cut? There was just no way.
“We just didn’t change anything, bowled well, made our spares and kept grinding. We had a bad last Baker game (126) where we had a couple of splits, a couple of chops and didn’t get the doubles we had in other games.”
The Panthers were led by senior Shayla Turner, who shot 244 her final game to finish with a 600 series and earn a spot on the all-tournament team.
“Everyone was telling us that we had lost a lot of girls and they didn’t believe we could do it,” said Turner, who had a limited role as a sophomore. “It just feels good to prove everyone wrong. It’s just amazing to make it through when others weren’t expecting it.”
Sophomore Kiele Poling add 549 for the Panthers and sophomore Chloe Thomas had 531.
Green had a 65-pin lead over Tallmadge heading into the Baker round, but ran into problems with lane transition.
“We struggled for sure in the Bakers, and we were working on a few things at the end,” Green assistant coach Alex Snowberger said after the Bulldogs finished with 132, 130 and 118 in their final three Baker games. “We already had a good feeling that we had made it, but we were just trying to get it down at the end.
“We practiced on this shot multiple times here, and it played pretty similar during the three games. But with the transition in the Bakers, we kind of lost it a little bit. We left a lot of pins on the deck.”
Senior Marissa Perrine finished third overall with a 620 series to lead the Bulldogs. Junior Elena Hughes also made the all-tournament team with 592 and sophomore Madison Perrine had 541.
This will be the Bulldogs’ fourth overall state trip and third in a row. After taking fifth following a five-game match-play loss to Jonathan Alder in the first round to finish fifth in 2022, Snowerberger has a goal in mind.
“We want to win it. I didn’t win it when I was a bowler (at Stow-Munroe Falls) and that’s our goal,” Snowberger said.
GOING WITH THE BOYS
This will mark the first trip to state for Nordonia’s girls while the boys will be making their ninth trip overall and fourth straight after finishing third a year ago.
“This is just awesome. This a great bunch of girls who worked hard all year and bowled well,” Knights head coach Ty Lachowski said. “When we went into the Bakers, we told them we were where we wanted to be. They just had to go out and average 170s or better.”
The Knights ended up shooting a tourney-high 1,094 for the Baker block.
“I’ll take that anytime,” Lachowski said.
Junior Kolbey Lewin and sophomore Kaitlyn McNutt led the Knights with 587 and 574, respectively.
Tallmadge coach Cindy Elliott was not surprised by the Blue Devils’ third-place finish overall. They were never out of the top four all day.
“With everything we had and after crunching the numbers we knew we would do this,” Elliott said. “We’ve seen them bowl these numbers before. We knew if they got out of the gate quickly, we would be good to go.”
The Blue Devils girls and boys went together the last time in 2020, with both teams making their third state appearances.
“We know what it’s like as do a couple of the girls. It will be brand new for a couple of them, but we’ll let them know what to expect,” Elliott said. “We want them to stay loose and have a good time.”
Senior Dakota Taylor led Tallmadge with a 619 series, fourth overall, juniors Deandrea Elijah and Maria Mara shot 572 and 564, respectively.
North Olmsted, which finished just 14 pins ahead of Boardman in fifth, did not have an individual finish in the top 20. Freshman And Plowman led the Eagles with 525 and senior Gabby Green shot 508.
But work and concentration paid off in the end for the qualifiers.
Cullen would like to see the Spartans get past the opening match-play round at state.
“We want to get that monkey off our back,” Cullen said. “We always make the cut, but we can’t seem to get past that opening round.”
Altimore wants his team to enjoy the moment, but realize they are there for a reason.
“All of this work on bowling on nothing but sport patterns, practicing on sport patterns, didn’t help us on house shots, but it helped us on harder stuff,” Altimore said. “Our goal is to make the state championships every season and to win one.
“We can look past averages, the Federal standings … that’s not our goals. It’s very fulfilling to know that all the time and effort we put in is paying off.
“I get choked up every time. We just put so much work into this. It’s an awesome feeling.”