Liverpool girls bowling standout Mary Townley got to compete close to home during Sunday’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association tournament at Mattydale’s Strike-N-Spare Lanes.
As part of the Section III All-Stars, Townley helped the local side finish third in a 10-team field, just missing the runner-up slot. Sabrina Williams (Camden), Katie Szczesniak (Utica Proctor), Alyssa Boccardo (East Syracuse-Minoa), Courtney Roher (Cortland) and Shawna Vonmatt (Lowville) made up the rest of the squad.
Overall, Section III had a pinfall of 5,626, just one pin less than Section V (5,627), who was second, and 121 pins behind Section II, who prevailed with 5,748.
In the six-game tournament, Townley had a best game of 193. She added games of 166, 157, 139, 181 and 187 for an overall total of 1,023. Sullivan, with a six-game total of 1,230, edged Becca Pratt (Lansingburgh) by two pins for state medalist honors.
The two-day state event kicked off Saturday with team championships that were swept by Colonie, a Section II school from the Albany suburbs. Vernon-Verona-Sherrill finished second on the boys side as Rome Free Academy got eighth place in the girls team event.
Then, in Sunday’s tournament, Henninger’s Bobby Moro led Section III’s All-Stars to a second-place finish with 6,024, just behind Section XI (Suffolk County, Long Island) with 6,099.
Moro had a six-game composite of 1,346, just behind Sachem East’s Jeremy Milito (1,377), with Fulton’s Dan Wahl (1,239) in seventh place. Rich Viti (Utica-Notre Dame), Bob Jones (Whitesboro), Ben Derrane (New Hartford) and Brett Risi (Ilion) made up the rest of the team.
