Lions’ McPadden Qualifies for State Championships
Needing a strong third game to qualify for the OHSAA State Bowling Tournament, NDCL senior Kody McPadden heeded the advice of his coach, Alex Dowger.
Needing a strong third game to qualify for the OHSAA State Bowling Tournament, NDCL senior Kody McPadden heeded the advice of his coach, Alex Dowger.
“I just told him to relax; we can’t think about what might happen,” Dowger said. “Just (focus) on one frame at a time.”
With that, McPadden finished third at the Northeast Ohio District Championships Feb. 23 in Lorain, thereby qualifying for states.
Staying focused helped McPadden roll nine straight strikes to start the third game.
His coach said he did a nice job staying calm, cool and collected.
“He kept his breathing nice and slow while he was sitting (in between frames),” Dowger said. “So his breathing was good as he was sitting and he was not too excited.”
Entering the 10th frame of the third game with a chance for perfection, McPadden rolled a perfect ball into the 1-3 pocket.
Unfortunately, as luck would have it, a stubborn 10 pin stayed up.
But McPadden was unfazed. He calmly converted the spare, then threw a strike to complete his final district championship game with a 279 and a trip to Columbus in hand.
The OHSAA State Championships are March 1 in Columbus.
McPadden began his first game with a 236, then followed with a 170. His third game gave him a 685 series and three-game average of 228.
Post-game, Dowger talked about the excellent district championship performance.
In particular, he said McPadden was process-focused, as was he tried to deliver the first ball of each frame into the 1-3 pocket. As a result, he delivered 33 out of 36 balls into the pocket throughout the series and only missed the head pin three times.
McPadden also threw the ball with a consistently good speed, his coach said.
After the tournament, he attributed his success to practice and repetition. He’d even practiced a few weeks before the district championships on the lane conditions he anticipated there.
Also bowling in the district championships Feb. 23 and 24 were Berkshire’s Noah Valentino and Mac Conrad.
NDCL’s girls bowling team also participated in OHSAA sectionals Feb. 19 at Roseland Lanes.
Individually advancing to the district championships were junior Hailey Kinney and sophomore Allie Wiseman, who finished fourth and fifth.
In qualifying for districts, Kinney had a three-game 468 series and Wiseman had a 464 series.
Kenston’s girls bowling team also competed at sectionals. Faith Smith qualified for districts with a 472 series and had a high game of 202.
In order to qualify for the OHSAA State Championship, Kinney rolled a 561 series at Rebman Recreation Center in Lorain on Feb. 26th. Kinney bowled games of 169, 192 and 200.
Kinney will bowl in the OHSAA Bowling State Championships in Columbus on March 9.
