A superb regular-season performance helped Baldwinsville girls bowling senior Annie Peterson earn a spot on the Section III All-Star team that competed last Sunday in the New York State Public High School Association tournament at Strike-N-Spare Lanes.
For a while, it looked like the work of Peterson and her teammates would lead to a victory, but a struggle early in the afternoon would produce a second-place effort.
The team included Peterson, Beth Piston (East Syracuse-Minoa), Danielle Feocco (Auburn), Emily Porter (Whitesboro), Tricia Miller (Fayetteville-Manlius) and Mandi LaClair (Sherburne-Earlville).
In the three-game morning session, Peterson started with a 201, fell back to a 151, but then roared back with a 234, her best game of the entire tournament.
All of that 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. Section V, with 3,176, stood in third place.
Then came a struggle in the fourth game, as despite Peterson’s steady 180, the team only managed 991, while Section VI 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. From Section VI, Maryvale’s Melanie Hannon had a 299 to close it out, just missing perfection.
Peterson had two of her best games down the stretch, posting 212 and 209 to finish with a pinfall of 1,190 and a 198.33 average, putting her 18th among individual bowlers.
Piston managed to win individual honors, scoring 205 or better in every game (including a 256) on her way to a pinfall of 1,412, an average of 235.33. Feocco was sixth (1,316), while Porter took 10th place (1,271), Miller was 21st (1,164) and LaClair was 32nd (1,091).
