Of all the individuals gathered last Sunday at Strike-N-Spare Lanes for the New York State Public High School Athletic Association girls bowling tournament, East Syracuse-Minoa’s Beth Piston fared the best.
It was Piston, with a steady, high-quality effort through six games of competition, emerging as the champion, and she nearly led her Section III All-Star team to the top spot, too.
All of it started in the morning with Piston, joined by Fayetteville-Manlius star Tricia Miller, plus an All-Star team that included Danielle Feocco (Auburn), Emily Porter (Whitesboro), Annie Peterson (Baldwinsville) and Mandi LaClair (Sherburne-Earlville).
Strong at the start, Piston began with a 221 game, and then turned it up more in the second game with a 256, her best total of the entire day. A third game of 205 left her with a morning series of 683.
Just as importantly, it helped Section III to a pinfall of 3,351 in the morning, which was good for a 101-pin lead over Section VI (Western New York) midway through the tournament. Section V, with 3,176, stood in third place.
But as Piston put together a 248 in her fourth game, the rest of the Section III side tailed off, managing just 991, while Section V got 1,143 and roared into a 51-pin lead.
And there it would generally stay for the rest of the tournament. Section III had scores of 1,074 and 1,092 in the last two games, but Section VI, with games of 1,072 and 1,097, matched it, so with a total of 6,508, Section III finished 54 pins out of the top spot.
Now the only question was whether Piston would hang on to the top spot. She would, ignoring possible fatigue and stringing together more strikes in games of 245 and 237.
All told, Piston had a pinfall of 1,412, an average of 235.33. That put her ahead of a field where Feocco, fueled by early games of 265 and 269, finished sixth (1,316) and Porter (1,271) was 10th.
As for Miller, she put up games of 226 and 231 in the morning as part of a 641 series, but tailed off in the afternoon, only getting above 200 once (205) as she settled into 21st place in 1,164, behind Peterson (1,190) but ahead of LaClair (1,091).
While all this was going on, ESM’s Sean Gavan was part of the boys Section III All-Star team that was eighth in the morning session, but improved to fourth place by the end of the tournament with a pinfall of 6,427. Section XI (Suffolk County, Long Island) won with 6,804.
Gavan finished 26th among individual bowlers. He had games of 194, 222 and 180 in the morning session, but roared to a 251 in the fourth game, and closed with 200 and 183 for an average of 205 and a pinfall of 1,230.
J.J. West (Henninger) led the Section III boys All-Star squad, finishing fourth with a pinfall of 1,374. Matt Clemons (Oswego) was seventh, with 1,352, while Ben Loughlin (Utica Proctor) got 18th place in 1,263.Ilion’s Jimmy Allen, in 34th place (1,177), and Whitesboro’s Brandon Zaleski, in 52nd place (1,072), finished behind Gavan.
