By BILL SNIER
CANTON — Robert Hawkins admitted that Baker System games have been a weakness for his GlenOak High School girls bowling team.
So the second-year coach decided to make some changes in his Baker lineup during Sunday’s Northeast District Division I Stark girls sectional at Eastbury Bowling Center.
“We moved up one of our JV bowlers who throws more of a power shot, so we had three power bowlers together,” Hawkins said. “I just said let’s hit the head pin and string something together.
“The strategy really worked today.”
Shooting “one of the best group of Bakers they’ve ever bowled,” according to Hawkins, GlenOak turned a 20-pin deficit after the three regular team games into a district qualifying spot.
Green, which was never out of the lead after Game 2, captured the sectional title with 3,637 total pinfall. The Bulldogs were followed by Perry (3,563), GlenOak (3,088) and Lake (3,074), which finished just 11 pins ahead of fifth-place Wooster after rolling 124 and 102 during its final two Baker games during the six-game block.
“It was a very ugly finish,” Lake coach Jeff Mowls said. “I think their nerves got to them. They were just missing everything, and that’s really all I have to say about that.”
The top four teams and top four individuals who were not members of those teams advanced to the Northeast District tourney, set for 10 a.m. Feb. 26 at Rebman Recreation in Lorain.
Despite falling short as a team, the Generals will send three individuals to district — freshman Anna Cadence (491), senior Linnea Savage (475) and freshman Mackenzie Jentes (470). The other individual advancing was Canton McKinley junior Haleigh Leggett (485).
BATTLE FOR FOURTH
Unlike his wife and GlenOak boys coach Jossett Petrick, who does not scoreboard watch, Hawkins likes to know where his team stands.
“I don’t let the bowlers know,” Hawkins added. “I tell them to focus on what we need to focus on.”
Hawkins said he has been playing around with different Baker lineups the past couple of weeks, moving people in and out.
“I’ve been really mixing it up and it probably threw a wrench into their games,” Hawkins said. “But the overall process worked.”
He originally moved Quinn Theodore, who was called up from the junior varsity team just two weeks ago, into the third spot, but then dropped her to fourth to set up anchor Kathryn Chech, who led the Golden Eagles with a 515 series. Isabella Needing was one of the three in the “power” spots.
“We’re learning to bowl more as a team. Last year, when we missed the cut by 40 pins, they learned how to bowl as individuals,” Hawkins said. “This was the main goal — let’s get to districts.
“It worked, they followed the plan and they bowled the best they could today. I’m super proud.”
GlenOak stood tied with Wooster after the first two Baker games for the fourth spot. But the Golden Eagles shot 631 over the final four Baker games to move ahead of Lake (536) and Wooster (606) into the third spot.
“Quinn threw a beautiful hard ball to the pocket and literally threw nothing but strikes in Bakers, so I moved her down to set up Kathryn,” Hawkins said. “Bella was a little off, but in four of the five Bakers we went three straight strikes and they did a solid job.”
Junior Kaidence Jackson backed up Chech with a 467 series and sophomore Ella Clapper added 444.
“We made cuts in all our tournaments but one and bowled with the same teams. I told them Green and Perry were probably going to run away with this, but we beat Green the first time and lost by only 10 pins the second,” Hawkins said. “I told them we can bowl with these girls.
“We may be unconventional, and we may not bring 10 balls for each girl. Most of our girls only have one, but they make it work. We’re gritty and we just have to stay consistent. The’s the big thing for us.”
Missing by 11 pins was difficult for the Generals, who qualified for district a year ago. Back to back 138 and 139 Baker games along with a 119 in Game 1 put them behind.
“I know it hurts, but lessons sometimes hurt the most,” Wooster coach Tracie Leiendecker said in a Facebook post. “You can only hope that we learn and grow. There is no doubt that these young ladies who gave me everything they had today will do just that.
“Everyone did what I asked and I am proud of each one of them.”
Lake had moved up to third after Game 2 and remained there until the final two Baker games. The Blue Streaks shot just 812 in the Baker set.
“They bowled pretty well all day, but they changed, not the lanes,” Mowls said. “The same balls were getting to the pocket, but they weren’t making their spares.”
Junior Madison Paxton led Lake with a 563 series, and seniors Samantha Kuruc and Lindsey Gotham shot 455 and 446 respectively.
“We had a good lead and saw GlenOak go around us, but we still had 103 pins on Wooster,” Mowls said. “We didn’t bowl that well (in Bakers), but 100 pins is tough to make up in two games.”
LEADING THE PACK
Green junior Madison Perrine led the Bulldogs and the tournament with a 624 series, including shooting 245 her final game.
“She was a little frustrated. She was hitting the pocket , keeping the ball in play and making her spares,” Green coach Alex Snowberger said. “But she didn’t throw it out of bounds.’
The Bulldogs shot just 822 in Game 1 to trail Perry by 15 pins. But 901 and 951 the next two games, the only 900 teams games of the tourney, put Green in the lead for good.
“We had to make some adjustments. We made a big move right with aggressive equipment. We just started in the wrong part of the lane,” Snowberger said after the Bulldogs defended their district title. “We’ve seen this shot a few times, but, honestly, it plays different every time we see it.”
Sophomore Brooklyn Krager added 547 for the Bulldogs, senior Elena Hughes had 529 and freshman Payton Taylor shot 493 as Green posted four of the top eight individual scores.
The Panthers shot a tourney-high 982 during Bakers despite coach Joe Altimore III substituting bowlers in and out of the lineup.
“They threw the ball really well today. A lot of the things that happened depended on who you’re following,” said Altimore, who is taking the Panthers to districts for the 13th straight season and is looking for his eighth straight state trip.
“We kept chasing it right. On some of the pairs you could chase it right and there was hold there. But we had girls missing spares by a fraction of an inch. But overall, they stayed pretty positive.”
Junior Kiele Poling, who shot a tourney-high 259 in Game 2, led the Panthers with a 622 series. Junior Jenna Boyer added 528, sensor Ami King 493 and sophomore Arielle Clapper 492 as four Perry players finished in the top 10 individually.
“During Bakers especially, I was going to try to have them play everywhere on the lane,” Altimore said. “We weren’t trying to win it; just stay in it. So why not experiment.
“I told everyone during Bakers I was going to get everyone in. I wasn’t trying to put big numbers together.”
But that all changes next week at Rebman Recreation.
“Even though we had a couple of seconds in tournaments, this is the big dance now,” Hawkins said. “We have to tighten up some games, make spares and deal with the nerves.
“This is the next step. Bowling districts and state … that’s what sets a program apart. We want to get to that next step.”
What do the teams work on for next week?
“Spares,” Mowls said, loud enough for the Blue Streaks players to hear. “Spares it what we work on next week. That’s it.”
NOTEBOOK: There were 16 teams in the field bowling on the OHSAA sectional-district oil pattern. … There were only two 600 series thrown and only four 200 games, two by Paxton (201-202). … In addition to Green having the lone 900 games there were only four 800 teams games thrown, three by Perry and the other by the Bulldogs. … Perry rolled the high Baker game of 219 in Game 6. It was the lone 200 game of the entire round., with Green and McKiley having the only 190 games. There were 13 sub-100 Bakers. Lake shot a 91 in its final Baker game a year ago to force a rolloff for the final district spot with Dover. The Tornadoes won the rolloff to advance. … Tickets for the district tournament in Lorain are $8 for adults and $5 for students. They are available online only at www.ohsaa.org/tickets