Girls bowling: Buckeye wins first sectional crown

SPRINGFIELD TWP. — It was a day of firsts for Aubrey Reuter and the Buckeye girls bowling team. The Bucks led wire-to-wire Monday at the Summit County Division I Sectional at Spins Bowl — it was the first sectional crown in program history — to earn a spot in the Northeast District next week at Rebman Recreation. Reuter also had a number of firsts at the 18-school event, including high series (630) and high game (269), while reigning state runner-up Gracie Dunne of Highland grabbed the second of five qualifying spots for individuals not on one of the five qualifying teams. Reuter, who opened with a 182 game and closed with a 179, had another first by starting her second game with eight strikes, topping her previous high of six. All were flush pocket hits while using her 15-pound Track Criterion for just the second time this season. With each frame, more and more spectators gathered behind Buckeye's pair of lanes, and by the time the senior took the approach in the ninth frame, Spins Bowl was eerily quiet. "It was that feeling of knowing how well I was doing but not wanting to think about it," Reuter said. "I just tried to remember the phrase, 'Play the frame, not the game.'" The strong right-hander's first ball in the ninth was in the pocket but a tad light, leaving the 7 pin standing. Reuter converted the spare after receiving a huge round of applause, struck on her first ball in the 10th and then converted a single-pin spare to better her previous high game by 24 pins. Buckeye teammate Riley Onyx shot her first competitive 200 game en route to finishing sixth with a 513 (138-205-170), while Leah Kaczmarski was right behind in seventh with a 500 (166-170-164). "It feels really good because I've been wanting a 200 all season," Onyx said. "To finally do it at sectionals, where it matters a lot, means a lot to me." Kaczmarski was steady throughout for coach Nancy Tinney's two-time defending North Shore Bowling Conference Lake Division champion Bucks. "I bowled consistently, but I could have done better," Kaczmarski said. "I was hitting a lot of spares, so that helped a lot." With LaRyssa Hartshorn rolling 186 and 135 games, Addison Fry shooting 136-142 and Lily Woznicki, Sophie Osborne and Chloe Chipgus also contributing, the Bucks finished with a pinfall of 3,443 for three rounds of individual bowling and six Baker games, giving them a 119-pin advantage over second-place Archbishop Hoban. Walsh Jesuit (3,183) was third, Firestone (2,879) was fourth and Norton (2,812) was fifth, while Brunswick (1,574), which was not allowed to participate in the Baker games because it had just four bowlers, was 17th behind Kayla Cerda (364, 124-137-103). "It's super special," Onyx said of the program's first sectional title. "No matter if some people are bowling good games and some people are having bad games, we collaborate very well. People bring other people up and it makes our scores very good." Reuter, who had the high series by 70 pins and high game by 49, agreed after the Bucks led the team standings by 49 following individual bowling, by 107 after two Baker games and by 120 after four. "We figured out cheering keeps us motivated," she said. "It keeps us together." Dunne, who represented the 18th school at the event as a one-person entry after bowling for the Highland boys team in the regular season, was able to keep it together well enough to shoot a 482 series (156-158-168) on a day when she was not at her best. "It was pretty bad, to be honest," the junior said after finishing eighth overall. "I was worried because I didn't think I was going to make it (to districts) with how I was bowling." With an average above 200, two-time Gazette MVP Dunne missed five spares and had five other opens after splits, some of them the result of terrible luck, while throwing just one double in three games. In her final game, she left a pocket 7-10 split in the seventh frame and a pocket 6-7 split in the ninth. A two-hander who started much farther left than most competitors in the field, the right-handed Dunne's strike ball frequently took a short bounce immediately after hitting the lane, but she made no excuses. "I wasn't consistent with my release, but I'm glad I'm making it to districts," she said. "I just wish I had bowled better today." Dunne, who was positioned to win a state title last season before being overtaken in the final game when Bellefontaine's Haylee Yelton rolled a 265 to beat her 699-676, can take solace in the fact everyone will start at zero Monday at the Northeast District. "I need to calm down and think positive," she said. "I bowled bad here (at Spins Bowl) the other day in practice, and I was thinking that today." Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com.