High school bowling: Cloverleaf girls win first league crown

AKRON — The Cloverleaf girls bowling team entered the Metro Athletic Conference Tournament locked in a battle with Ravenna, but by the end of Saturday the Colts were galloping past the entire field for their first conference championship. Cloverleaf won the tournament with 3,292 pins, nearly 200 ahead of second-place Woodridge (3,109), while the Ravens finished third with 3,054. The Bulldogs were the defending postseason tournament and overall champions. "I'm so happy," junior Skyler Hustick said. "We've worked so hard for this, and we deserve this. We finally get our banner in the gym. I'm so proud of everybody on the team." The Colts boys team picked up a 504 three-game series from junior Tyler Corbett en route to finishing seventh out of seven teams. Ravenna's boys surprised the field to win with 4,068, but regular-season champion Springfield did enough to take the overall championship by finishing second with 3,984. Cloverleaf's girls got contributions up and down the lineup but were powered by senior Delayna Harvey, who tossed a tournament-best 567 series. Harvey got her team off on the right foot by bowling the highest girls game of the tournament with a 213 on Stonehedge Entertainment's quick lanes. She capped the day by bowling two strikes and knocking down nine pins in the last frame of the final of six Baker games when the Colts' momentum had begun to stall. The 213 led to an 871 team score in the first game, which was Cloverleaf's highest of the day. "This feels great, and I couldn't ask for a better team to be here with," Harvey said. "I knew that the lanes were going to be difficult and we were going to need to adjust on the spot. After the 213 game, it got me prepared for the rest and it went pretty well after that." Cloverleaf, which finished second at the preseason tournament and won the regular season, saw its work and dedication pay off by improving on last winter's third-place finish. "Most of our team hasn't stopped bowling," said Hustick, who turned in a 438 series. "Most of us bowl in a summer league, a league before the school season starts, bowl throughout school and then go straight into another league. We don't want to take a break, and a lot of the girls on the team have seen like a 40-pin increase in their average because we never stop bowling." Finishing not far behind Harvey was sophomore Abby Fijalkovich, who took fourth with a 498. "I'm overall just really proud of my teammates because we had some rough times on the lanes, but we were able to overcome those," she said. "All of us had the motivation to win and had a good mindset to move on to the next game with optimism." Right behind Fijalkovich was senior Natasha Messmore, who tossed a 478. Messmore credited the team's bond with helping them pick each other up when they started to struggle, along with the guidance of head coach Dennis Huffman and assistant coaches Michelle Drogell and Don Koval. "Our connection with our teammates really helped hype each other up," Messmore said. "We wouldn't have been able to accomplish this victory without our three amazing coaches." Messmore hopes that the momentum can translate into the postseason, when the Colts travel to Eastbury Lanes in Canton for a Division II sectional in two weeks. "I think we're doing pretty good," Messmore said. "Hopefully, we're going to come out on top (at the sectional). I think we can, because we've got a lot of good bowlers and good coaches, too." Rounding out Cloverleaf's lineup was junior Rae Ann Hlavaty, who took a 432 series. "It's really amazing because we've never made it this far before," Hlavaty said. "When the lanes started breaking down they got super hard, but we all found our mark. We talked through it with each other and our coach (Huffman) helped us out a lot, too." Contact John Urchek at jurchek@medina-gazette.com. Results Tournament standings: 1. Cloverleaf 3,292, 2. Woodridge 3,109, 3. Ravenna 3,054, 4. Norton 3,019, 5. Coventry 2,905, 6. Springfield 2,630. Season standings: 1. Cloverleaf 17, 2. Ravenna 16, 3. Woodridge 12, 4. Norton 7.5, 5. Springfield 6, 6. Coventry 4.5. Cloverleaf (3,292): Delayna Harvey 567, Abby Fijalkovich 498, Natasha Messmore 478, Skyler Hustick 438, Rae Ann Hlavaty 432. Boys Tournament standings: 1. Ravenna 4,068, 2. Springfield 3,984, 3. Norton 3,561, 4. Woodridge 3,400, 5. Streetsboro 3,398, 6. Coventry 3,276, 7. Cloverleaf 2,925. Team standings: 1. Springfield 26, 2. Norton 24, 3. Ravenna 21, 4. Woodridge 15, 5. Coventry 10, 5. Streetsboro 10, 7. Cloverleaf 4. Cloverleaf (2,925): Tyler Corbett 504, Shane Hlavaty 452, Zane Evans 438, Zach Friess 415, Austin Brooks 224, Joe DeYung 93.