State Bowling: Highland's Gracie Dunne finishes second

COLUMBUS — Highland sophomore Gracie Dunne not only surpassed her pre-tournament goal of finishing in the top 10, she nearly achieved her ultimate goal of winning an individual Division I state bowling title. Buoyed by a season-high 259 game right out of the chute, Dunne rolled a season-high 676 three-game series Friday at HPL Bowling Center to finish second to Bellefontaine senior Haylee Yelton, who shot 265 in her third game for a 699 series. On the team side, the Wadsworth girls, making their second state appearance, finished 12th in a strong 16-team field, with Vandalia Butler bringing home the title. "When I woke up, I felt good," said Dunne, a two-hander from the right side who earned first-team All-Ohio honors. "I wasn't nervous at all. I felt like I was going to do well." There was a reason for that. During practice Thursday at HPL, Dunne, concerned way more about learning what might work best and what moves she would have to make under various lane conditions than she was about her three-game series score, used three bowling balls and tried three lines to the pocket. She shot a whopping 739. Better still, when the 15-year-old arrived at the center Friday morning to bowl with the Magnificat team, just as she had done at the Northeast District, she learned she would start the day on Lanes 5 and 6. As luck would have it, that was the same pair she had practiced on. Dunne promptly started her first game with three strikes. Far from finished, she completed a clean game with a six-bagger for 259. "I was locked in," said Dunne, who opened with a 140 game a year ago while finishing 40th at the state tournament. "I had a pretty good shot, and it was very important to start with a good game." The second game, on Lanes 7 and 8, was more challenging. Dunne started with two spares, a strike, picked up a four-pin spare and struck over the first five frames. She then threw one of her few bad balls of the day, missing the head pin entirely and leaving a difficult 1-2-6-8-10 spare in the sixth. Dunne, who throws a hook for spares on the left side, is equally adept at using a backup ball when pins are on the right, so she was able to convert. "I don't want to remember that first ball, but I felt like I could make the spare if I did the backup ball," she said. "So I did the backup ball and I made it." Dunne struck in the seventh, eighth and ninth frames — she did so in all three games — and had the possibility of going off the sheet for 239. Using her Black Hammer urethane ball, which she and Highland coach Brian Esterle knew wouldn't be viable much longer because of changing lane conditions, Dunne drilled the pocket but left an extremely unfortunate 7-10 split. Instead of 239, she had her only open of the day and shot 203. "I said to throw a solid shot and execute in the 10th, which she did," Esterle said. "It was just a case of bad luck. It was time to get out of the urethane, but you don't want to switch in the 10th frame, especially on a three-bagger." "I was sad for the 10th frame 7-10," Dunne said. "It was a good ball. I was thinking I was going to strike again (on the next ball) for a five-bagger." In hindsight, that shot might have cost Dunne the state championship she covets, but there was no way of knowing that at the time, as bowlers were spread across 46 lanes and no score updates were provided. Quick trips up and down the lanes, however, did show she was certainly in the running heading into the third game. On a day when she also used her Phaze II and Thrill bowling balls for strike shots — she used two others for spares — Dunne stayed clean in her final game. Strikes in the seventh, eighth and ninth frames left her in the exact same situation as the second game: Strike out and shoot 239. Dunne, however, missed her mark and let up a bit on her speed as her first ball in the 10th went high, leaving a two-pin spare that she converted before getting seven on her fill ball for a 214. A double in the 10th also would have given her the title, but again, there was no way of knowing that at the time. Though she fell short of her ultimate high school goal, Dunne, who will bowl in the preliminary rounds of the Pepsi Tournament today in Coshocton and the JTBA Tournament on Sunday in Columbus, recorded the highest state placing by a female bowler in Medina County history. "She bowled awesome," Esterle said. "She only threw two errant shots all day that were bad off her hand. Other than that, her performance was pretty much spot on. It was just an unfortunate 7-10 split." Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com. Follow him @RickNoland on X.