Channell joins sister as state champ
SMYRNA — An individual state championship had eluded Hardin County's Kailee Channell the last two years.
After watching her sister Ashley Channell win three consecutive championships in a row from 2014 to 2016, the younger sister took over looking to repeat that same level of success.
Unfortunately, that success didn't come right away.
Channell finished second as a sophomore and third as a junior.
She finally broke through as an individual state champion this year. Kailee Channell, a Vanderbilt commit, beat Smyrna's Elizabeth Coutta 200-162 for the state championship making her the sixth state champion in Hardin County bowling history and the first since her older sister.
"I've been in this situation for the past two years and each of the last two years did not end the way I wanted them to, so I'm glad that I can come in here my senior year and end it the way I wanted to," Kailee Channell said. "Whenever Ashley won her three in a row, my goal was to come here and win four in a row.
That didn't happen but I am glad that I was able to get one before I left here."
In the semifinals, Kailee Channell bowled an 815 for an average of 203.8 landing her in first entering the finals.
"It was just a sense of relief when she finally got it," Channell's coach and mom Jennifer Channell said. "With COVID, we were worried early on that we wouldn't be able to compete and to get to finish this season out has been great."
In his first season with Hardin Valley, Devean Littlejohn knocked off Walker Valley's Jacob Brown 238-197 to claim the program's first individual state championship.
While he had bowled all of his life, Littlejohn never got the chance to bowl prior to this season as he attends Oak Ridge fulltime. Oak Ridge co-ops with Hardin Valley in bowling since the Wildcats don't have a team.
"This is the best experience I've had in a long time," Littlejohn said. "I never expected this. I expected to maybe finish in the top-six but never expected to actually win hardware."
Littlejohn's coach Terry Disney was visibly emotional after the win and wasn't shy to talk about how proud he was of him.
"I've known Devean for a long time and to be able to coach him this year has been great," Disney said. "We bowl our home matches at Oak Ridge and I kept teasing him that he should have started playing for us his freshman year. I'm glad that he got to bowl at the high school level and have this sort of experience."
Reach Joe Spears at jspears2@gannett.com or 731-343-4923. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter @joe_spears7.