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Four area boys teams qualify for districts
By Greg Gulas
NILES
Struthers and Champion were the state’s top Division II boys bowling teams last season.
Both squads realize that in order to get back to state this year looking ahead isn’t an option.
The Wildcats, last years’ runners-up, posted 3,816 to capture a sectional title Tuesday at McKinley Lanes while Hubbard (3,720), Lakeview (3,595) and Champion (3,534) — the winner a season ago — also qualified for district play Saturday at Rebman’s Recreation Center in Lorain.
“When you come to McKinley Lanes you realize that the lanes are going to be tough and challenging. Today they were both and every team knew that coming in,” said Struthers coach Bob Eisenbraun Jr. “The key for us was that we were able to stay around the pocket, picked up our spares and the entire team was a model of consistency throughout the tournament.”
Struthers had three players individuals among the top performers — Andrew Brabant (589, fourth place) Struthers’ J.D. Heffron (584, fifth) and Jarrod Sawyers (577, sixth).
“We made the necessary adjustments and worked as a team. We help each other out and when one player is down, everyone is right there to pick him up,” Heffron said.
Hubbard’s Caleb Johnson registered the top set, 635 while his 243 in his second game tied Sammy Adya of Champion for the day’s top individual game.
“The lanes were much more challenging than I originally anticipated. I’ve been practicing on them the last three weeks and they weren’t what I thought they would be like today,” Johnson said. “Our goal as a team was to get to the district and all we want to do is just take it one event at a time.”
Adya’s top roll also occurred during his second game.
“I played where I wanted to play; up 10 and that’s where I usually play,” Adya said. “As a team we qualified and that’s all that matters.”
The other two 600 sets were authored by Maplewood’s Nick Freeman, who fashioned a 609 and Mitchell Cohol of Hubbard, who rolled a 606 set. In addition to Freeman, the other three individual qualifiers include McDonald’s Matt Smith (565), Brookfield’s Nelson Swartz (542) and LaBrae’s Brandon Bergstrom (530).
“The lanes started out oily and then started to dry out in the second game, so I switched to a less-aggressive ball,” Freeman said. “That started to open up my shot more and made it so that it would carry to the pocket and I’d have a better roll.”
Cohol, who opened with a 205 game, shot a tournament-best 220 in the final game.
“I thought that it would get easier, but it got harder so I am pleased with my effort,” Cohol added. “I was proud of how we bowled as a team and a lot of that had to do with our coaches, who kept us focused throughout the tournament.”
Hubbard head coach Ron Killian called the Eagles’ performance a “true team effort.”
“Our plan coming in was to make our spares and beat the teams that were closest to us. We wanted to have clean games with no open frames,” he said.
Champion head coach Dale Johnson is glad to be moving on to district play.
“We struggle on wood lanes as we’re used to the synthetic lanes in our house at Champion Lanes,” Johnson said. “We feel that it will get better for us at district when use the synthetic lanes.”