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Prep bowling teams eye tournament trail
YOUNGSTOWN
The Strikers Pizza Pub and Sub serves up some good food during business hours at Mahoning Valley Lanes, but, recently, the best bowling was served up during the opening weekend of the OHSAA sectional bowling competition.
“We have 180 parking spaces and none was left,” Mahoning Valley Lanes proprietor Shane Nesbitt said of the capacity utilized during the Divsion II sectional tournament for Mahoning and Trumbull county schools last Sunday.
More of the same is in store on Sunday when the Division I sectional is contested — back at MVL.
“We had roughly 250 spectators who came out to watch the kids, so we’re expecting probably the same number this week, weather-permitting,” said tournament manager Fran Miller.
She said that this Sunday’s field will be a mix of schools from the area and beyond because it’ll include schools from Mahoning, Trumbull and Portage counties.
“There will be schools who are unfamiliar with each other,” Miller said. “It will truly be a potpourri.”
Portage’s Division II schools competed at the Summit County sectional last Sunday.
The 2013-14 bowling season represents the first divided by enrollment.
Canfield’s boys team, the defending state champion in 2012-13 under Carl Hurd, will be among the schools competing in Division I at Mahoning Valley Lanes this Sunday, beginning at 9 a.m. The girls start at 2.
Struthers, Champion, Lakeview and Maplewood were the Division II boys teams advancing out of MVL on Feb. 9, when Lakeview, Hubbard, Girard, Cardinal Mooney and Struthers were girls teams staying alive for a shot at the district tournament, which will be Feb. 22 for Division II and Feb. 23 for Division I — both at AMF Riviera Lanes in Fairlawn.
Among D-II boys at MVL last week, four teams and four individuals not on a qualifying team advanced, while, among D-II girls, five teams and five individuals not on a qualifying team moved on.
This Sunday, only the top three Division I teams and top three individuals will survive for another weekend.
Lakeview’s girls won their crown with 3401, followed by Hubbard (3355), Girard (3243), Mooney (2980) and Struthers (2946).
With a high 598 set, Lakeview’s Valerie Szabo was tops. The top five individual girls not on a qualifying team — those who advance to AMF on Feb. 22 — are McDonald’s Breanna Burk and Nina Dunn, Lowellville’s Kathryn Grope, Liberty’s Alexis Ramsey and Brookfield’s Jessica Neral.
Burk finished 20 pins behind Szabo, while Grope had 539, Ramsey 538, Dunn 516 and Neral 474.: .
Mahoning Valley Lanes hadn’t been a sectional site since 2006, when high school bowling wasn’t a fully sanctioned sport in Ohio.
Miller has her hands full at this time of the high school season.
“Technically, I’ll be running eight sectional tournaments over the Feb. 9-10th and 15th-16th weekend,” she said of sites, including Lake County, for both boys and girls.
Miller said that Niles is one area school that competed in Division II for girls, while its boys squad will bowl in Division I.
Leading Struthers’ boys to the team title was senior Dan DiLoreto, a 17-year-old right-hander who was Division II sectional champion at MVL with 679. It was DiLoreto’s first sectional title, but, despite rolling 300 games in competition his sophomore and junior years, he’s not totally satisfied with his high school career.
“Last year didn’t pan out like we wanted, so we’ve still got more work to do. We want to win the district and state.”
Joining DiLoreto, who was a recent athlete-of-the-week for his 210 bowling average and 3.0-plus GPA, are senior Dan Demyan, juniors John (J.D.) Heffron and Jay King and freshmen John Medvec, Andrew Brabant, Adam Cifra and Jarrod Sawyers.
King and Demyan advanced to the district level in 2012-2013.
Struthers had teams reach the state finals every year but last year, said coach Bob Eisenbraun, who explained that 2012-13 was a rebuilding season after losing Corey Bayus and Nick Gigax.
“It didn’t go the way we thought it would, so we came up short.”
He hopes the Wildcats get back on their feet — postseason-wise.
“It makes a big difference now that they split into two divisions.”