A successful winter for the Chittenango girls bowling team culminated in a victory during last Friday’s Section III Class B championship tournament.
Working together, the Bears’ team, composed of Casey Smith, Ashlee Snyder, Cayleigh Phillips, Kristen Snyder, Megan Gearity, Jenny Spade and Rebecca Preeman got better as the day went along, a key to claiming the title.
It was held at the same venue – Strike-N-Spare Lanes in Mattydale – as the Bears used throughout the regular season in Onondaga High School League play. That familiarity would prove handy against Chittenango’s Class B challengers.
Through the morning session, Chittenango and Vernon-Verona-Sherrill nearly matched each other shot-for-shot. The Bears’ pinfall of 2,388 was just eight pins ahead of the Red Devils’ 2,380 heading into the break.
When they went to the “Baker” team format for the afternoon, Chittenango started to get away, the Bears stretching the margin to 37 on VVS in the fourth game, and then moving it to 61 pins in the fifth game.
Finally, Chittenango put together its best team total in the sixth and final game, 826 and with a total pinfall of 4,715 the Bears won by 106 pins over Solvay (4,609), who finished fast to edge out VVS (4,587) for the runner-up spot.
It was Fulton, who twice beat Chittenango in OHSL regular-season matches, repeating as overall team sectional champions, a pinfall of 5,562, beating runner-up Auburn (5,174) by 387 pins andearning a chance to return to Strike-N-Spare on March 2 for the state championship tournament.
