By BILL SNIER
COLUMBUS — Claymont High School had the lone 300 in school history shot during Senior Night six years ago.
Riley Milburn became the second Mustang to accomplish that task — on a much bigger stage.
The senior two-handed right-hander rolled just the third 300 in OHSAA Division II State Boys Championships history during Game 3 on Saturday at HP Lanes.
This came after Milburn had opened with games of 235 and 209 en route to finishing as state runner-up with a 744 series — 20 pins behind state champion Christopher Ritchie of Mechanicsburg, who became the first player to shoot 296 in tournament history en route to a 764 series. That also set a state Division II tournament record by 16 pins.
Milburn’s mark was just four pins off of the previous mark of 748 set by Joseph Teeter of Mississinawa Valley in 2016.
“The nerves were all right … they’re just nerves,” said Milburn, making his first state tournament appearance. “I just got up in the 10th frame and threw the ball.”
Following his 235 in Game 1, Milburn said he had “a couple of splits on bad shots … but I didn’t miss any makables (spares).”
“For me, it was the exact same as practice on Friday night. I may have been two boards left,” said Milburn, who used a Motiv Pride Liberty and was sending the ball out to about eight to 10 board while standing around 30.
“I used that ball the whole way and never changed, It’s just an awesome way to finish my career here.”
Claymont coach Bill Young just said “wow” when discussing Milburn’s performance.
“He just recently threw a 300 in practice, and we had a feeling it might happen this weekend. And it did,” Young said. “He’s been a trooper for four years here and I’m glad he did that.”
But the Mustangs as a team struggled otherwise, finishing with just 3,750 total pinfall and missing the cut to match play by 170 pins in 14th place in the 16-team field.
“Our fifth bowler was a problem all day. We knew coming in that would be our weak spot and it was today,” said Young, who had to take composite scores of 109 and 137 out of that spot.
“We picked up a lot of spares … we did all right in that area. We only have two kids back next year so we have to find some bodies. Hopefully, kids will get excited about us after the pep rally on Friday and what Riley did today.”
PODIUM FOR COMET
Although Coventry’s team, which finished as state runner-up a year ago, came up short of the cut this time, Wade Allen earned the final All-Ohio spot on honorable mention with a 674 series.
“I was very surprised. I thought I did well, but I didn’t think I was good enough to make it right on the cut line,” said Allen, a two-handed righty. “I was happy with my performance.”
Allen had games of 238, 225 and 211.
“The last game, I really didn’t hit my mark as much as I would have liked. I was very inconsistent and missed a few spares,” Allen said. “My teammates held me up and I tried to grind it out as best I could.
“We have to take back all the memories of last year when we finished second as a team. But it was nice to be on the podium again as a singular at least.”
Coventry head coach Aaron Rose felt the Comets compiled “a good score for us” with 3,845, missing the cut by 75 pins.
“We just missed some easy spares early on,” Rose said.
Not having the team advance was disappointing to the sophomore after the 2023 run.
“We have been grinding all year, finishing second in sectionals and third in districts. We thought we had a good chance again,” Allen said. “But things just didn’t go our way.”
Junior Aiden Jensen aded 609 for the Comets, and senior Andrew Naugle had 598.
“We were around 200 every Baker game except for that 168,” Rose said of Game 3 of the Baker System portion of qualifying. “We missed some spares we normally don’t miss.”
The Comets will return three players off this team next season.
“We have to recruit some bowlers. Our numbers have been down the past couple of years, but we have to bring in some new kids and develop them pretty quickly,” Rose said.
“We have to do some recruiting,” Allen added. “That’s for sure.”
Medals the past two seasons may help.
NOTEBOOK: Individually, nine members of the first two All-Ohio squads shot 700 or better, with 32 players shooting at least 600.