Miranda Romano Bowling, Hubbard

For the fifth consecutive year, a girl from Hubbard has earned the honor of the area’s top female high school bowler.

Although that almost wasn’t the case after the Eagles lost the majority of their state runner-up team from a year ago. The lone remaining contributor? Mirando Romano.

“Last year was totally different,” the Hubbard senior said. “We had everybody together, we all knew each other, we all grew up together in the bowling alley. We were all like sisters.”

She follows Brittany Ferrara, who was last year’s honoree, Amanda Wess and then two-time winner Samantha Dudley. Romano said bowling with this year’s team was a big change. She went from having people there to pick her up if her game slipped, to having to lead a group of mostly underclassmen.

“It was like, ‘Oh if you need help, go see Miranda, [which] was fine with me’,” Romano said. “It helped a lot. A lot of the girls improved majorly.”

The team’s success wasn’t what it was last season, but that didn’t keep Romano from earning a trip to Columbus as one of the top individual bowlers in the state. She came back with a fifth-place finish.

“Honestly, I’m really impressed with myself,” said Romano. “I’m happy where I ended — wish it was a little higher, but anybody would.”

Romano is looking for a college that offers bowling as a school-sponsored sport, as opposed to just playing on a club team. In her search she’s found that a lot of schools don’t even consider it a sport, something she hopes that one day will change.

For now, she’s content with being one of the top female high school bowlers, especially with the strength of competition in northeast Ohio.

“Over here we have some of the top bowlers in the state,” she said. “I am so impressed and so proud to be part of that. It’s unbelievable.”