The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Fairport, Mentor girls cruise in sectional
The girls bowling teams from Mentor and Fairport weren’t about to let the boys have all the glory.
Just hours after the Mentor and Fairport boys bowling teams won sectional championships at Wickiffe Lanes on Feb. 17, the girls teams followed suit.
Led by individual champion Emily Eldridge (528 series), Fairport piled up an aggregate score of 3,214, easily outdistancing fellow Division II district qualifiers Padua (2,869), NDCL (2,641) and the rest of the 11-team field.
On the other side of the building, Alexis Sullivan — the only senior on a youthful Mentor squad — rolled a 536 series to lead the Cardinals to a Division I sectional title. The Cardinals had a score of 3,067, with St. Joseph Academy (2,812) and Garfield Heights (2,631) also qualifying for the district tournament in the 10team field.
So if there was any doubt — and there shouldn’t be — the strength of bowling in the area is in Fairport and Mentor.
The four sectional titles (two boys, two girls) the teams combined for should attest to that.
“I think having a familyown and run bowling alley that’s small enough and close enough helps us,” said senior Bella Coll, explaining the dominance Fairport currently has going in bowling. “I’ve been bowling there since I was 9 years old.”
A similar type of bond is forged at Mentor.
“Fortunately, we’ve always been good,” said Sullivan. “We have great coaching, and we’ve been working hard every day.”
Fairport’s lead was never in question in the Division II tournament. With Eldridge rolling a 528, Sierra Sadler rolling a 484 and Lindsey Benko chalking up a 446, three of the top eight individual games came from Fairport bowlers.
The Skippers also had the
best Baker games scores — with 920 pins in six games. The next best was Padua’s 815.
“I think (the lane conditions) were a little difficult to get used to,” said Eldridge.
The results suggested otherwise.
“It was nice,” Fairport coach Jerry Rich said. “We have high standards. We always feel we are capable of more. We’re never satisfied. The lanes were funky today, but we did all right.”
Mentor had similar fortunes. Sullivan’s series, second only to individual champion Alex Drsek of Kenston (592) led the team,
but Cheyenne Peterson’s 503 gave Mentor two of the top four individual scores in the tournament. The Cardinals also had No. 10, 11 and 12.
The 300-pin lead wasn’t difficult to protect in the Baker games.
“This feels great,” Sullivan said. “We knew we could do this. Now we’ve got to keep moving forward and get through districts, too.
“We did really well today. We were on our A-game.”
While no other area team qualified for districts, Drsek, Brush’s Amiya Weaver (451 series) and North’s Heidi Zidan (411 series)
all advanced to the district individually.
In Division II, NDCL will bowl at the district level for the second year in a row, with Wickliffe’s Susannah Tippen (490) advancing individually.
NDCL coach Alex Dowger attributed his team’s ability to succeed in Baker games to its success.
“We have steady bowlers,” he said. “We don’t falter there. We hold our own in Bakers.
“We were in the middle of the pack at districts last year. Obviously, state is our goal. We haven’t had a team there yet, but maybe this is our year.”