Teamwork is important to success in high school bowling. Although bowlers perform individually as they roll the ball down the lane, they must work together in Baker games (each bowler throws two frames) to outscore the competition.
Teamwork is important to success in high school bowling.
Although bowlers perform individually as they roll the ball down the lane, they must work together in Baker games (each bowler throws two frames) to outscore the competition.
At Solon RollHouse Lanes on Jan. 29, Kenston’s Bombers demonstrated a high level of cohesiveness to defeat the Mayfield Wildcats, 2,110 pins to 1,859 pins.
In their match with the Wildcats, the Bombers took a 134-pin lead after the first two individual games.
With a slight lead heading into the Bakers, the Bombers threw eight strikes in the first Baker game to record a 203, then won the next two Baker games (149-108 and 182-172) to claim victory.
“It was a really great day today,” Kenston Head Bowling Coach Brian Smith said. “The boys bowled as a team. They’ve been getting closer to doing this, but today they really put it together.”
Leading the way for the Bombers were senior Trevor Stretch and junior Josué Holtz.
Stretch, who bowled the fifth and 10th frames for the Bombers in Bakers, had an excellent match.
In fact, he threw four strikes in the first Baker game to lead the Bombers to their best Baker this year, a 203.
Holtz had two strikes in the fourth and ninth frames of the first Baker game.
“Today, honestly, was our best day of Bakers like, ever, this season,” Stretch said. “Our first game, we haven’t done it all season, but we finally threw a 200 game as a full team, which is really impressive. A couple times we’ve come close this season, but finally we broke that threshold.”
Added Holtz, “The team worked extremely well together. Best I have seen in my three years of being here.”
In addition to the three Bakers, each Bomber bowled two individual games to start the match.
Individually, the Bombers were led by Holtz (194, 199 – 393 series), Stretch (197, 190 – 387), and Jordan Fox (159, 165 – 324).
Reflecting upon his individual games, Holtz said he felt good in warm-ups and dialed-in to the lane conditions.
However, when the first match began, he noticed his ball began to over-hook or under-hook.
Thus, early on, he decided to change bowling balls to better meet the challenging conditions.
“I switched to my Polaris instead of my Envision, and it really started to bring the strikes to everything,” Holtz said.
Stretch also noted the difficult shot pattern.
“The lane conditions were a little bit off,” he said. “I don’t think I was throwing the right bowling ball, which kind of caused me to switch to a different bowling ball.”
Stretch and Holtz have both had “outstanding seasons” so far, their coach said.
“Trevor had a real good year last year, but this year he stepped it up even more. He’s leading the league in average, averaging around 222,” Coach Smith said. “Josué is third in the league at about 203.”
Notable performances for Stretch have included matches against St. John (257, 259 – 516 series), Brush (249, 230 – 479), North (264, 213 – 477), South (245, 224 – 469), North (226, 222 – 468) and South (241, 212 – 453).
Holtz’s top performances came against Lake Catholic (247, 244 – 491 series), North (267, 214 – 481), South (254, 217 – 471) and Jefferson (244, 203 – 447).
With just a few more matches left before playoffs, Stretch said he still has some lofty goals for his senior season: “I want to keep doing well at these matches and hopefully qualify for sectionals upcoming, and then move on to districts and hopefully on to states.”
