Galion girls, River Valley boys win at Bucyrus' bowling tournament

BUCYRUS — The third annual Bucyrus bowling tournament showed just how much bowling has grown as a high school sport in Ohio.

Just five schools were in attendance the first year of the event. Last year that number grew to seven. 

But 17 boys teams and 16 girls teams vied for the title Saturday afternoon at Suburban Lanes in Bucyrus, and there was no shortage of excitement in crowning new champions.

River Valley fended off a late charge by Liberty-Benton and host Bucyrus to claim the boys title for the first time, while the Lady Tigers of Galion were absolutely clinical on the lanes, taking a commanding lead after the initial games and expanding that even more after Bakers.

Boys

In a back-and-forth battle in the three opening games, River Valley, Liberty-Benton, Pleasant, Mt. Gilead and Tiffin Columbian swapped places in the top five with Bucyrus, Wynford and Mansfield Senior placing themselves within reach with good Baker games.

Each team bowled six Baker games, and after one Wynford put itself in contention for the title with tournament-record 245. As more Bakers finished, it was Bucyrus' consistency that moved the hosts from sixth after the first three games to a third-place finish (3,683).

But River Valley's 59-pin lead after the opening games combined with a solid showing in Bakers gave the Vikings (3,731) the title by a mere 14 pins over Liberty-Benton (3,717), which bowled the third-highest Baker total to move from third to second. Bucyrus' 1,158 in Bakers was the tournament-best.

Mt. Gilead's Graham Sherbourne set a new tournament record, with his top individual score (667) in three games edging out Tiffin Columbian's Zavier Sherman by a single pin for the honors. The previous best was a 655 by River Valley's Nick Manning last year.

River Valley's Trace Kelly bowled a 614 as the highest individual on the winning team.

Girls

Although it was not nearly as thrilling as the boys battle for the crown, Galion (3,315) led by more than 200 pins after the first three games of the tournament and went on to bowl the highest Baker game in tournament history (189) for a dominant 273-pin victory – the largest win margin by a girls team to date.

To make the performance even more impressive, Zoe Frany led the Lady Tigers with a 594 individual total to achieve the top individual honors and her 245 in the third game was the highest single-game girls total — just one pin behind Mansfield Senior's Hayden Couch for the tournament single-game high.

Ridgedale was team runner-up with a 3,042, and Pleasant third at 2,989. Elgin's Beth Strong (586) was eight pins behind Frany and Ridgedale's Gracian Daugherty bowled 573 for second and third individual honors, respectively.

Local Results

BOYS

Bucyrus was paced by Braxton Lewis' 561, followed by Gabe Higginbotham (547), Seth Price (522) and Hyden Rittenberry (481).

Wynford (3,597) placed fifth as a team led by Kobie Naufzinger's 588, which was sixth-best among individual boys. Next were Brian Schifer (570), Tyler Binder (505), Isaiah Bender (456) and Dylon Jones (387).

Galion (3,219) was 14th, with scoring from Sean Clark (547), Nathan Barre (528) and Ethan Click (437).

Crestline (3,212) 15th behind Nick Huber (521), Cody Griffin (507), Blake Guiler (505), Hunter Gibbons (453) and Hunter Farrel (297).

GIRLS

Galion also had scoring from Kadence Fairchild (492), Abby Crager (478), Missy VonHoupe (452) and Neavia Cansler (390).

Crestline (2,540) was 11th behind Marissa Black (484), Lexis McCombs (382), Lilyan Shwan (329), Lily Riddle (315) and Lexya Lavene (314).

Bucyrus (2,496) was 13th, with scoring from Maddison McDaniel (379), Katie Kuhn (379), Rylee Powers (370) and Kailey Horsley (301).

Wynford (2,298) was 15th behind Savannah Bender (359), Miya Kinn (343), Cheyene Dunford (343), Brooklin Brown (316) and Kendall Naufzinger (302).