By BILL SNIER
AKRON — At most high school bowling tournaments, boys and girls teams roll separately at different ends or sides of a bowling center, competing within their own divisions.
Then, there is the 12th annual MLK Invitational on Monday at Spins Bowl Akron.
Instead of splitting up, boys and girls teams bowl together as a unit, with their combined scores determining placement.
“This is always one of my favorite tournaments,” Boardman girls coach Justine Cullen said. “It’s probably one of the only times you come together as a program to compete.”
The combined teams bowled two regular games, both teams on the same pair of lanes while moving pairs every game, and then six Baker System games before the field was cut to the top eight for best-of-three Baker match play by seed.
“You know, we really didn’t know what to expect, putting the boys and girls together like this,” Wadsworth head coach George Steele said. “But it turned out to be a really great day.”
Twenty-one teams participated in this unique format event. But, when the smoke cleared after a six-hour day, Boardman emerged with its fourth win in the event in six years, sweeping past Wadsworth 418-346 and 334-319 in the title match.
“They sure showed up today … both of us did … and I was excited,” Cullen said. “I just love this format. It’s always really fun and we always seem to compensate for each other. If one of us has a bad game, the other seems to be always there to pick the other one up.”
After sitting second following the first regular game by 69 pins to Nordonia, the combined Spartan teams shot 1,852 in Game 2 to take a lead they never relinquished.
“We seem to have to get warmed up to the shot a little bit after a game or two,” Cullen said. “Then once we get into our groove, we start taking off a little bit.”
Boardman boys coach John Lucansky feels this particular format also motivates the girls team, who is the defending OHSAA Division I state champion.
“You have to hand it to our girls. They really have a tendency to carry us in this tournament,” Lucansky said. “This is just so much fun and we have a great group that enjoys being with each other.
“You can tell it motivates the girls, and we will take that. Motivation is motivation.”
The Spartans, never shooting below 359 in Baker games during qualifying and the only team to shoot a pair of 400 games on the 2025 OHSAA sectional-district oil pattern, led the field with 6,033 total pinfall heading into match play — 375 pins ahead of second-place Nordonia.
GRIZZLIES RUN TO TITLE MATCH
Wadsworth was never out of third place the entire day, finishing qualifying with 5,332 for the combined squads.
“We started off the day shaky. I think we had something like 33 splits the first two games combined, but we had a lot of strikes too,” Steele said. “But we were able to make up for it.
“Our total was a little lower than I thought we would be as a number, so we had to clean that up a little bit and we did to make it all the way to the finals. Finishing second to a great team like Boardman, I have no regrets today.”
The Grizzlies were able to sweep by No. 6 Norton in their opening match, winning Game 1 339-337. They also swept No. 7 Rootstown in the semifinals to earn the finals berth against Boardman.
Steele felt fatigue may have been a factor later in the day.
“I thought they were wearing down a little bit toward the end. They were on the sectional shot and battled pretty hard today,” Steele said. “It you would have switched our first and second games in the finals, we would have been bowling one more for the title, but we just couldn’t do it. It was a long day.”
In the title match, Wadsworth’s girls had four splits in Game 1 while the boys had three splits in Game 2. Boardman’s girls had just two open frames over the two games, shooting 216 clean in Game 1 and 184 while the boys went 202 in Game 1, but had three splits in Game 2.
Aubrey Masuda led the Grizzlies girls during qualifying with 356 and Cassidy Myers added 337. Steele also highlighted Amelia Lutz as being clutch during Baker games. For the boys, four starters — Thor Angel, Alex Espie, Cayden Sponsor and Hayden Eagon-Mohlmaster — all shot between 344 and 357, with Eagon-Mohlmaster being clutch during Bakers. Fifth starter Nate Weyand was bothered by a thumb problem. “We couldn’t use him much of the day,” Steele said.
But the Grizzlies’ teams head into this week both 9-0 in the Suburban League with big matches against Nordonia and Highland looming (weather already canceled the Tuesday match against the former).
“We also have the Suburban League tournament coming up which is 20 percent of our season, so we have some big stuff coming up,” Steele said.
GRINDING IT OUT
Boardman’s boys were coming off a win at the Rootstown Rover Sectional Preview on Saturday, while the girls were second.
“We’re getting into the busy part of our schedule with two matches a week plus tournaments on the weekend. We’re trying to manage rest and make sure everyone is good for the weekend events,” said Lucansky, whose boys have wins in three tournaments since December. “We want to keep everyone in a good mindset … we’ve been bowling really well.
“We have to keep everyone grounded, which is always difficult. Confidence is great, but you don’t want to be overconfident early.”
The Spartans swept by No. 8 Tallmadge and No. 5 Akron Hoban in their opening two matches, not winning a game by less than 15 pins.
For the Spartan girls, the senior duo of Marissa Funk (394) and Kaitlyn Greenaway (418) led them during qualifying. The latter threw five strikes in the 10th frame of the two title match games.
For the Spartan boys, Brayden Rudge led the way with 409 in qualifying, with Jessy McCutcheon adding 387 and Ben Hildebrand with 382.
“Kate and Marissa had some big games and we added spare conversions across the board. That’s really the key at these things,” Cullen added.
Cullen calls January “a grind” for her team.
“With so many tournaments and matches, it’s good that they get fatigued because you’ve prepared them for that long day at state,” Cullen said. “You want them to get comfortable at being uncomfortable.
“They are making adjustments, being tired and adapting to situations. We get better at it every year. I’m so proud of them.”
NOTEBOOK: Walsh Jesuit’s Gabrielle Price turned in the top individual girls series and game with 235 and 443, followed by Greenaway’s 418. … In the boys division, Nordonia’s Riley Edgehouse had 467, with a high game of 267. Kent Roosevelt’s Brayden Darkow led the boys with 483. … The cut to the top eight was at 5,057, with Tallmadge finishing 69 pins ahead of Walsh Jesuit. … Norton and Rootstown tied for the sixth and seventh spots, with the former winning a two-frame rolloff 56-43 to earn the higher seed. The Panthers fell to Wadsworth in their opening round while Rootstown went three games to top No. 2 seed Nordonia, winning the last one 413-337.
12TH ANNUAL MLK INVITATIONAL
(Monday, at Spins Bowl Akron, Akron)
Quarterfinals
(Boys and girls team combined scores; best-of-three Baker System)
1 Boardman (371-395) d. 8 Tallmadge (340-370) 2-0
7 Rootstown (279-389-413) d. 2 Nordonia (374-375-337) 2-1
3 Wadsworth (339-334) d. 6 Norton (337-313) 2-0
5 Akron Hoban (346-339-382) d. 4 Cuyahoga Falls (344-367-308) 2-1
Semifinals
Wadsworth (387-363) d. Rootstown (348-326) 2-0
Boardman (318-322) d. Akron Hoban (275-307) 2-0
Championship
Boardman (418-334) d. Wadsworth (346-319) 2-0
