By BILL SNIER
COLUMBUS — Landon Dreibelbis woke up Friday morning feeling terrible.
“I was feeling really bad … it was rough,” the Ashland High School sophomore said about feeling ill. “But I was still going to bowl. It’s not like I had to go out and hit someone. I was just cold the whole time. It was kind of a struggle.
“But I fought through it and ended up bowling pretty good.”
He was better than pretty good during Friday’s OHSAA Division I State Boys Bowling Championships at HP Lanes.
The two-handed right-hander led the Arrows with a 691 series to earn All-Ohio honors for the second straight season. After shooting 695 a year ago, good for fourth overall and first-team All-Ohio, he finished sixth this year, missing the cut to first team by 11 pins and earning second-team honors.
He was joined by Arrows teammate and fellow sophomore two-hander Max Oeken, who shot 685 to finish eighth overall for second-team honors. Oaken was 22nd a year ago with 632.
“It’s not a real physical sport, so I wasn’t too weak or anything,” said Dreibelbis, who used his Roto Grip Hustle USA the majority of the day along with a 900 Global Zen. “The line didn’t really change for me. I had to go to a stronger ball later, but they really didn’t transition much for me.”
He was throwing the Hustle from about 14 board to “maybe eight or nine … I was somewhat tight, but I had a lot of room.”
Dreibelbis opened with 230, and followed with 247 and 214.
Oeken started his day with 170.
“As an individual, I started pretty rough, but I started holding my ground the last two games,” said Oaken, who finished with 246 and tourney-tying high of 269 in Game 3 (shared with Gahanna Lincoln’s Will Gray and Hilliard Davidson’s Clean Guthrie).
“I started with the (Storm) Virtual Energy, but didn’t get what I wanted to I wen to the (Storm) Nova most of the day.”
Oeken rolled his shots “between third and fourth arrow probably out to around nine or 10 (board), but not getting too far out.”
Ashland coach Jim Brown was impressed by his sophomores’ performances.
“They were unbelievable. They kept us all together today,” Brown said. “And Landon wasn’t even 100 percent. They’re two of the best bowlers you could ask for.”
Kettering Fairmont senior Isaiah Shannon took the state title with 743, followed by Sun dry Big Walnut senior Aidan Furukawa with 728.
ARROWS FALL SHORT
But while the two Arrows stars achieved state honors, the team fell short of its championship goals.
After taking the lead in Game 2 of the regular games following a 1,036, the Arrows maintained the qualifying lead the rest of the way, finishing with 3,824 total pinfall. That included a tourneys-high 654 three-game Baker set.
“In districts and sectionals, we struggled a little bit, but despite me, the team did pretty good the first game,” Oeken said. “We kind of picked ourselves up today.”
But things changed during the best-of-five Baker System match-play rounds for the Arrows.
“One of the things with the state that I don’t agree with is bowling on lanes that have sat all day during match play,” Brown said. “We bowl all day on a grind, and you get better as they come to you and get better on the burn.
“Then, you go back to fresh that sat all day and you don’t know what you’re getting into lane to lane.”
The Arrows went five games to stop No. 8 seed Washington Court House Miami Trace, winning the last game 213-149 in their opening match.
“During the first match, the right lane was pretty wide open and the left lane was really tight,” Brown said.
But in the second match against No. 4 seed Avon Lake, the Arrows shot just 132 and 168 their first two games, falling behind 2-0. After winning Game 3 172-166, they dropped Game 4 and the match 191-172 to finish third overall.
“When we got to Lanes 13 and 14, both the lanes were really tight. We opted to go inside where the lanes were hooking so we had a better look,” Brown said. “But we missed a few key spares.
“Obviously, spares win championships, and in low-scoring type matches you have to make spares.”
A favorite entering the tournament due to their big season plus having all five of their starters among the top 35 individuals in the 106-player field, Brown acknowledged the pressure on his team of five sophomores and two juniors to bring home a title in their sixth state appearance after two runner-up finishes.
“Let’s just say the target on our backs is real big .. it covers the whole back. Everybody who sees the Ashland Arrows, who wouldn’t want to beat us when they see the numbers?” Brown said. “They all want to beat the high qualifier. That’s how I am, and there’s nothing wrong with that.”
Oeken and Dreibelbis admitted the pressure is real.
“There are a bunch of people here cheering us on and it gets into our heads,” Oeken said. “There are so many people putting so much pressure on us to win this, it’s kind of hard.”
But with everyone returning, the pressure continues next season.
“The caliber of bowlers that we have is unbelievable. These kids can compete at the collegiate level. They bowl JTBAs, Junior Gold … and they do it all on tough oil patterns, patterns some people wouldn’t understand, and they’re great at it,” Brown said.
“These kids have been working on their games their whole lives to get to this point, and it’s a lot of pressure. They’re facing the best teams in the state, and we will be going to nationals in June and compete. It’s going to be awesome, and we’re getting ready for that.”
Oeken feels the chink in the Arrows’ armor is Baker games.
“If someone is down, the whole team gets down, and that’s not a good thing,” Oeken said. “That’s what it comes down to for state championships: Baker vs. Baker game. And that’s what’s going to kill us. It seemed like the other teams had more energy.
“Bowling head-to-head has hurt us all year,” Dreibelbis added.
But Brown feels the lanes were more to blame for Friday’s difficulties.
“I would like to see this stay on the burn. You go to the burn, at least you know what you’re getting into,” Brown said. “We work on our mental game. But we have to go back to the drawing board and figure out what to do when the lanes are flat.”
Joining Oeken and Dreibelbis in Arrows’ scoring were junior Brantyn Long with 614, sophomore Mikey McKinney with 597 and sophomore Luke Rhine with 583.
AVON LAKE’S BID ENDS
Senior Jacek Gomez made first-team All-Ohio with 702 in leading the Shoremen to the title match against defending champion Beavercreek.
The Shoremen shot 203 and 204 in Games 2 and 4 to force a Game 5, losing 222-169 in their first state team appearance to leave as state runners-up.
Beavercreek was making its 10th state appearance and earned its third title and second in a row, with the first coming in 2015.
Avon Lake also got 672 from junior Sean Gallagher, who placed 10th to make second-team All-Ohio, and 619 from senior Atticus Alldredge.