By BILL SNIER
COLUMBUS — One spare, two spares … that’s all it took.
Two Northeast District teams were denied spots in the match-play round at Saturday’s OHSAA Division I Girls State Bowling Championships by less than 20 pins.
The real hard-luck loser for the second time in three seasons was Amherst Steele, which entered the three-game Baker System round at HP Lanes in seventh place.
Instead, the Comets finished with a 461 Baker set to fall eight pins out of the cut with 2,971 total pinfall. Steele had games of 138 and 143 after starting with 180.
It as Gahanna Lincoln that was the big beneficiary, shooting a tourney-high 579 in Bakers to vault from 11th to sixth with 3,017. Bellefontaine was the cut at 2,983.
“We had a few splits in the Bakers, five in the last two games,” Comets coach Steven Taylor said. “They thought they made a good shot, and it would jump on them or it hung out on the gutter.”
The Comets were making their second state appearance, but a similar situation occurred during their initial trip in 2022 when they had 416 in Bakers to miss the cut by just four pins.
“You absolutely can go game to game and find a lot of missed marks. To be honest, we missed some easy spares and missed combination spares,” Taylor said. “They did a pretty good job transitioning on the lanes, but we gave up some easy pins.
“You just can’t do that at this level. You’ve got to bring it.”
The Comets will lose three key players to graduation.
“It’s time to rebuild and find new talent,” Taylor said.
Senior Sabrina Stawicki earned All-Ohio honors for the Comets, finishing seventh overall with 611 to make second team. Sophomore Peyton Zakrajsek added 554.
PERRY FALLS SHORT
Perry found itself on the outside looking in following the three regular games, sitting 10th and 56 pins out of the cut.
The Panthers were able to cut that margin with 512 in Bakers, but fell 19 pins short of advancing with 2,964 total pinfall, good for 10th place.
“I tell them you have two choices. You can give up and quit or fight back,” Perry coach Joe Altimore III said. “They motivated themselves and fought back. Those last couple of Baker games were big.”
But the Panthers, who were making their seventh straight state appearance and eighth in nine years, had their problems in the three regular games.
“All day long we had a good look when they were fresh, but when they blew up, they got harder for us,” Altimore said. “We just weren’t able to throw the ball hard enough to keep it on line.
“I don’t think anyone at the beginning of the season thought we were going to get as far as we did. I was hoping this end would stay tighter longer, but it didn’t.”
Sophomore Arielle Clapper led the Panthers with a 546 series and senior Ami King added 518.
“With Ami, I couldn’t ask for a better kid. She’s compassionate and a little pit bull when she latches on to something,” Altimore said. “We couldn’t have asked for anyone better to be a senior leader on this team. She helped us tremendously this season.”
Now it’s time for the Federal League champions to reload — again.
“Our JV team was all freshman with one first-year senior this season,” said Altimore, who loses only King to graduation. “Four or five of them by the end of the season I think could have been on varsity for a lot of other teams.
“We’ll be back again. Our goal every year is to be as deep as we can be.”
STREAKS’ FIRST APPEARANCE
Lake’s bowling program appeared for the first time — boys or girls — at the state bowling championships. In fact, it’s the first time in 19 years that a Lake team has competed for the state title.
But things did not go the Blue Streaks’ way, starting with one girl having problems getting out of her bowling ball due to a swollen hand. Lake finished 16th overall with 2,747, missing the cut by 236 pins.
“We had girls that just couldn’t hit their marks,” Lake coach Jeff Mowls said. “They tried to go outside of it and not go into the gutter, but it did. It was just bad execution on our part.”
Senior Kaylee Hollar, one of four seniors on the Lake roster, led the Streaks with 542, finishing 26th overall. No other Lake player shot above 459.
“Nerves didn’t really get to them,” Mowls said. “They just weren’t hitting what they were looking at and, on this shot, you have to do that.”
With a school levy vote in the offing, the future of the program may be in doubt. But the coaches still are preparing in case.
“We’re going into the middle schools and putting together a DVD about these girls’ experiences and what they did, with photos and interviews with each of them,” Mowls said. “We want to use this to build interest in the program.”