COLUMBUS — A Louisville sophomore led a parade of Northeast Ohio District individual bowlers who dominated play during Friday’s OHSAA Division I State Boys Tournament at HP Lanes.
Seven Northeast Ohio players finished among the top 15 individually to earn All-Ohio status.
Leopards sophomore two-handed right-hander Owen Emerick, making his first state appearance, failed to convert a spare in the first frame of Game 1. After a made spare in the second frame, he went on to roll 10 straight strikes for 269.
He followed that game up with 213 and 212, respectively, with one split and one missed spare in each, for a 694 series to finish fourth overall and earn first-team All-Ohio. He is the first Louisville bowler since two-handed righty Chase Barstow, a state runner-up his senior year and now a Louisville assistant coach, to earn All-Ohio honors.
“Beyond proud of this young man. He took it one shot at a time, kept his head up if he made a bad shot and as a sophomore placed fourth in the state,” Louisville coach Courtney Stallman said in a Facebook post. “He makes it very easy to coach!”
He was joined on the first team by Amherst Steele senior Grant Taylor, who shot one of the three 700 series on the day with games of 256, 224 and 226. He finished 73rd in his last state appearance in 2024, third this season.
Steele teammate and senior Garrett Smith finished in a three-way tie for fifth with 685, but landed on second team due to high games determining placement. He was joined by Olmsted Falls junior Matthew Jernejcic (679), who tied for eighth overall.
Earning honorable mention were Twinsburg senior Jeremy Stapleton Jr. (679), Steele junior Ethan Burich (662) and Avon Lake senior Jeffrey Toth (654), who claimed the final All-Ohio spot by just three pins over Cleveland St. Ignatius’ Colin Robinson.
Gahanna Lincoln senior Karl Clous captured the state title with a 720 series.
XAVIER TOPS TEAMS
Cincinnati St. Xavier, making its fourth state tournament appearance, earned its first state title as the No. 4 seed, stopping Cincinnati Elder 3-1 in the best-of-five Baker System championship final. Xavier had games of 189, 212, 225 and 204 en route to the win.
Elder, the No. 2 seed overall, was making its third state appearance.
State runner-up and junior Jack Kaiser led Xavier with a 715 series and sophomore teammate Luke Stigall added 685. Senior Jayden Brown was high for Elder with 685.
The format was three regular team games and five Baker System games. The top eight teams then advanced to the match-play rounds.
Defending champion Ashland finished sixth after qualifying, but was beaten by No. 3 seed Amherst Steel 3-2 in an opening match. Steele won Game 5 240-193. The match also included a two-frame rolloff after a 202-202 tie in Game 3, which was won by Steele.
Senior Max Oeken led the Arrows with a 642, senior Luke Rhine added 623, señor Mikey McKinney 606 and senior Landon Dreibelbis 605.
Steele then fell in the semifinals to Elder 3-1, rolling just one 200 in that match.
Avon Lake advanced as the No. 5 seed and Cleveland St. Ignatius was the No. 6 seed. Both fell in first-round matches.
Among other area teams, defending state runner-up Boardman finished 15th and Lake, making the first boys state team appearance in school history, finished 16th.
Senior Jessy McCutcheon was high for Boardman with 586. Four Lake players finished within four places of each other — senior Josh Trent (522), senior Braden McKinney (521), junior Noah Earles (517) and junior Andrew Venus (515).
Centerville was the No. 1 seed with 4,236, but fell in its opening match to Gahanna Lincoln (3-1). It finished 23 pins ahead of Elder (4,213).
Gahanna Lincoln earned the final team spot with 3,915, finishing 37 pins ahead of East-Southeast District champion Hillsboro (3,878).
Centerville turned in the high Baker series with 1,157, including 268 its final game to clinch the No. 1 seed.
The Division I girls take to the lanes Saturday to conclude the state tournament, beginning at 11 a.m. at HP Lanes.