By BILL SNIER
CANTON — Triway High School bowling coaches Chriss Steiner and Ryan Merckle have made clear the confidence they have in their respective teams heading into the 2026-27 bowling season.
“I preached to these girls toward the end of last season that they were going to be the team to beat this year,” said Steiner, whose girls roster features four sophomores, two freshmen and one junior and finished just short of a Division II district berth a year ago with a lineup of five freshmen.
“I told these guys when we started the year that if we don’t win our conference and make a deep run in the state tournament, they should be disappointed,” said Merckle, in his first year as head coach of a team that was Division II sectional runner-up last season and returns six seniors on its eighth-player roster.
The Titans did not disappoint during their initial tournament appearances, sweeping to boys and girls titles respectively at the Stark County High School Bowling Conference’s annual Early Bird tournament Saturday at Eastbury Bowling Center.
Triway led qualifying in each division — the boys by 198 pins and the girls by 191 — en route to taking the team tournament trophy with a combined 5,376 total pinfall.
“(Former coach) Vince Yoder built this program from the ground up and he did a fantastic job,” said Merckle, owner of Ballerz Sports Club who served as junior varsity coach under Yoder for one season. “Triway has a legacy of good bowlers. Obviously, there’s a little pressure to continue that legacy.”
The tournament format included two regular team games and five Baker System games during the qualifying round. The top eight teams in each division then advanced to best-of-three Baker match play by seed for the quarterfinals and semifinals before the championship round became best of five.
The Titans needed just three games to complete their tasks in the finals.
TITANS BOYS GRAB TITLE
After sweeping Louisville in its opening match, the Titans suffered their one blemish during a 2-1 win over Green in the semifinals. After winning Game 1 of the best-of-three match 209-128, the Bulldogs gained a 187-165 win in Game 2 to even the battle.
“I just told them to refocus and make our spares,” said Merckle, whose roster features six two-handed righties along with a lone one-hander (junior Balin Finley). “I told them if we are around 200 we would be all right.”
Merckle proved prophetic as Triway took Game 3 245-137 to earn a spot in the finals against 2026 Division II state qualifier Coventry.
But this was a depleted Comets roster from the state runners-up of 2024 and the seventh-place finisher of a year ago. Gone were first-team All-Ohio player Aidan Jensen, lost to graduation, along with one transfer (Riley Butler) and injured Owen Eder, out with a back injury.
“Honestly, we overachieved today … I was not expecting us to be where we were at,” said Coventry coach Aaron Rose, whose Comets are entering their inaugural season in the SCHSBC. “We were hoping to make the top eight and just get in there.
“But we overachieved in the Baker games and we brought it.”
Coventry stopped No. 2 seed Lake Center Christian 2-0 in its opening match before going three games to stop North Canton Hoover 2-1 in the semifinals. The Comets won Game 3 235-201.
But, as Rose said later, the Comets “ran out of gas” in the finals against Triway.
“Our backups had to outdo our former starters to make it this far. I’m just proud of these boys,” Rose said. “A lot of them didn’t even pick up a ball until the season started other than Wade (Allen). He’s always bowling.
“But this is just a building block. Our goal is to get back to Columbus at the end of the year. We can still bowl and we proved that today.”
Allen, ranked as the No. 2 player in Ohio according to bowl.com, led the Comets with 439 and Deven Legg, who only is available to the Comets for tournament play due to his work schedule, had 341.
Freshman Chase Kauffman led the Titans with a 444 series as the Titans had three players shoot 400 or better, including Davin Merckle (417) and Luke Carey (401).
“Three of our six two-handers converted when they were freshmen so you have to give them a lot of credit,” Merckle said. “They’ve worked hard on their games and have become really good players. The shot just matched up with our guys today and we made our spares, which helps.
“I’m very proud of the guys. They concentrated, made their shots and picked up spares.”
TRIWAY GIRLS IN THREE
The Titans girls had little problem during their opening matches, sweeping past Canton Central Catholic and Lake by wide margins before completing their sweep of Massillon.
Game 3 put some pressure on the Titans after Massillon finished with 151. But anchor Savannah Starcher, a second-team All-Ohio player a year ago, converted a 2-10 “baby split” in the 10th frame and struck on her final ball to score 152 and complete the sweep.
For Tigers coach Jenny Fromholtz, just reaching match play was a “huge” step forward for her program.
“I’m so incredibly proud of these girls … I just can’t put it into words right now,” an emotional Fromholtz said. “This year, they are all meshing together. They are all getting along and they worked really hard and have done a lot of bowling. It has just clicked.
“We have never made it past qualifying in the eight years I’ve been coaching so to get here to the championship round and also beat Perry is just huge.”
The third-seeded Tigers swept annual state qualifier Perry in the semifinals after sweeping past Louisville in its opening match.
Abbi Cross led the Tigers with 305, and Kylie Werstler added 292.
Fromholtz gave credit to Dennis Gordon and former Team USA coach Jeri Edwards along with her cousin Erica Sanders for helping her girls improve their games.
“I had a lot of advice and learned from a lot of people. I had to learn everything from scratch when I started this,” Fromholtz said. “I knew nothing about the sport. It was either take over or they would cut the sport. I couldn’t be more grateful for the help I’ve received.”
Freshman Harper Windsor led the Titans with 342, while Starcher added 334 and Kinsley Merckle shot 328.
“I was really surprised for our first time out. I wasn’t sure what we were going to do,” said Steiner, whose team also has a pair of two-handers. “I made sure we used all our girls early … I didn’t just want to stick with our top girls. I’m always happy when they put something else into this.
“This is just a great boost for us.”
One that both Triway teams hope provides incentive for more wins down the line.
NOTEBOOK: The field featured 15 boys and 14 girls teams. The teams bowled on the 2027 OHSAA 41-foot sectional-district oil pattern. Eastbury is the site for the 2027 Stark Division I sectional. … Lake Center Christian’s Gabby Wright and Windsor tied for high individual girls honors with 342. They were joined on the all-tournament girls team by GlenOak’s Mikayla Tucker (337), Starcher (334) and Green’s Payton Taylor (332). … Central Catholic’s girls gained the final qualifying spot with 1,703, 22 pins ahead of Canton McKinley. … Windsor shot the girls lone 200 game (201) and the Titans posted the girls lone Baker 200 in qualifying with 212. … Green’s Carson Oakes, a transfer from Akron Hoban, led the boys with a 516 series. Joining him on the all-tournament team were Lake Center’s Kaden Dallas (490), Green teammate Jason Bidinger (478), Kauffman (444) and Allen (439). … Oakes posted the high game with 279 and Bidinger added 277. … Louisville earned the final match-play spot with 2,454, 84 pins ahead of East Canton. … Triway was the lone team to post three 200 teams during Baker qualifying, with a high of 257.
SCHSBC EARLY BIRD TOURNAMENT
(Saturday, at Eastbury Bowling Center, Canton)
BOYS
Quarterfinals
(With seeding)
No. 1 Triway (167-174) d. No. 8 Louisville (148-122) 2-0
No. 7 Coventry (205-210) d. No. 2 Lake Center Christian (178-173) 2-0
No, 3 North Canton Hoover (199-220) d. No. 6 Lake (180-119)
No. 8 Green (145-219-246) d. No. 7 Perry (203-144-132) 2-1
Semifinals
Triway (209-165-245) d. Green (128-183-137) 2-1
Coventry (171-153-235) d. Hoover (149-180-201) 2-1
Championsship
Triway ((200-189-202) d. Coventry (141-153-156) 3-0
GIRLS
Quarterfinals
(With seeding)
No. 1 Triway (178-151) d. No. 8 Canton Central Catholic (107-99) 2-0
No. 2 Perry (153-166) d. No. 7 East Canton (111-120) 2-0
No. 3 Massillon (143-133) d. Louisville (109-116) 2-0
No. 5 Lake (172-119) d. GlenOak (102-105) 2-0
Semifinals
Triway (177-162) d. Lake (128-104) 2-0
Massillon (138-146) d. Perry (129-128) 2-0
Championship
Triway (160-159-152) d. Massillon (113-126-151) 3-0