High school bowling: Brunswick overtakes Medina for GCC crown

The Brunswick boys bowling team controlled what it could control and got the help it needed Saturday at the Greater Cleveland Conference Tournament at Wickliffe Lanes. Having tied for second with Euclid in the regular season — Medina was alone in first — the Blue Devils needed to finish first at the tournament and have another school in the five-team league also finish ahead of the Bees in order to win the overall crown. That's exactly what happened, as Brunswick won with a team score of 3,625, defending champion Mentor was second with a 3,566 and Medina finished third at 3,499. With the regular season and tournament each counting 50% toward the overall GCC championship, that gave the Blue Devils a half-point more than the Bees and their first overall title. "I was anticipating the help coming from Euclid, but we got the help from Mentor," Blue Devils coach Greg Bentkowski said. "Going in I told them, 'Nothing else happens unless we win. We need to win today and let the rest of the chips fall where they may.' And they fell our way. We bowled well and the pins fell. They were stunned. I'm still stunned." Medina's Chase Gordon was the individual champion with a 660 series, while Brunswick finished second in the four-team girls tournament to finish second overall behind Mentor. Returning All-Gazette pick Alex Brooks led the Blue Devils with a 608 three-game series, which placed him fourth individually. He opened with a pair of 214s and held it together enough to shoot 180 in his final game. Alex Jawyn added a 214 game and 547 series and Derik Colbert had a 214 game and 529 series, but Brunswick's biggest hero might have been Trevor Horman. With left-hander Ryan Bentkowski struggling due to a strained forearm, Horman replaced him late in the first game and threw four straight strikes to salvage a 146. He then shot 203 in the second game and 228 in the third. "He was probably our MVP," Greg Bentkowski said. "He was definitely the difference." Brunswick finished its six Baker games before Mentor, which still had a chance to surpass the Blue Devils, who shot just 134 in their final game. The Cardinals needed to string six strikes at the end to finish first at the tournament, which would have given Medina the overall title, but managed just two before missing. "I was watching college basketball on TV because I didn't want to focus on Mentor," Brooks said. "Then I looked over and they missed and we won. We were all celebrating internally because we knew we had won, but we had to wait for it to become official." Like Horman, Brooks stepped up big time for the Blue Devils. Having shot a school-record 566 two-game series (290, 276) earlier in the week, he struck out in the 10th three times in the Baker games and missed just one spare on the day. "I'm very happy," he said. The day didn't go nearly as well for Medina on the short oil pattern at Wickliffe Lanes, but the Bees did have the individual champion in Gordon. The senior struggled to a 155 in his first game but closed with a 259 and 246 to shoot a tournament-best 660. Kaden Rodriguez added a 515 series for Medina and Jake Krahe shot 513. "We should have and could have won," Gordon said. "There were some tough conditions and we weren't making spares. We weren't doing what we needed to do to win. That's what happens." Though what he really wanted was the team title, Gordon, who moved right on the approach and threw at the pins more directly after struggling in his first game, was pleased to be the individual champ. "It's a pretty big deal," he said. "I've been working at it for five years or so, so I'm glad to see I've made that much improvement." The Brunswick girls finished with a 2,620 team total, well behind champion Mentor's 3,283 but enough to break a regular-season tie with Solon and finish alone in second in the overall GCC standings. Rae Duck led the Blue Devils with a 181 game and 488 series, while Katelyn Soworowski had a 420 series. Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com. Follow him @RickNoland on Twitter.