Right up to the final game, the Liverpool girls bowling team had a chance to grab a Section III championship Sunday at Strike-N-Spare Lanes.
And while that effort fell short, the Warriors still finished third in Class A and fourth among Division I (large school) sides as Cicero-North Syracuse was second in the race for the boys Class A championship.
The Liverpool girls struggled, like so many others with a tough “Tower of Pisa” oil pattern, in the first game with a 744 team total. But games of 872 and 858 to end the morning session put the Warriors into contention.
As the afternoon session got underway, Liverpool was at 2,474, just 50 pins behind Division I leader East Syracuse Minoa. After a 752 in the fourth game, the Warriors improved to 862 in the fifth game to move within 59 pins of the Spartans with one game left.
But led by Haley Youker, whose 1,318 series was the best of any individual, female or male, ESM got away in the final game and, at 4,988, claimed Division I honors.
Finishing with a pinfall of 4,858, Liverpool was just 10 pins behind Rome Free Academy (4,868) in the final Class A standings, with Auburn (4,867) in between them.
Individually, the Warriors’ Ashley Hardy finished fourth with a six-game total of 1,073, including a high game of 232, the second-best individual game behind Youker’s 247 finale.
Dailyn McCarthy was 16th with a 981 series and 213 high game as Danielle Maher got 18th place with a 966 series and Riley Warren was 23rd with a 933 set.
C-NS had a team score of 4,591 to finish fifth as Trinity Drodz got a 1,084 series, with games of 215 and 209, that put her in third place among individuals, behind only Youker and Fulton’s Megan Guernsey. Elianna Pitts had a 916 series, while Carly Lescenski had an 879 series. Trinity Drozdz shot a high game of 215.
Over in the boys sectional Class A tournament, C-NS put up a morning score of 2,656 to settle into second place behind Baldwinsville in the morning session, and stayed in that spot the rest of the way.
The Northstars’ aggregate of 5,225 was 70 pins behind the Bees’5,295 among Class A sides, and fourth overall in Division I behind B’ville, Fulton (who won with 5,503) and ESM, who finished third with 5,237.
Nick Bough led C-NS as his 235 in the fourth game was part of a 1,145 series that put him sixth among individuals. Zach Emm, with a six-game total of 1,054, finished in 20th place. Liverpool had a total pinfall of 4,719 on the boys side.
Before the sectional tournament, area teams would go to Strike-N-Spare last Tuesday to take part in the Salt City Athletic Conference championship tournament.
And Liverpool would finish on top in the girls SCAC event with a pinfall of 1,880, edging out East Syracuse Minoa (1,864) by 16 pins. C-NS, with a pinfall of 1,753, was fourth, 17 pins behind third-place Fulton.
The Liverpool boys took third place with a pinfall of 2,004, just behind Fayetteville-Manilus (2,080) and Fulton (2,062), while C-NS got fifth place with 1,972, trailing fourth-place B’ville by six pins.
Liverpool had one more bit of regular-season work to handle last Monday, and did so at Strike-N-Spare as it defeated the Syracuse City team in a pair of 3-0 sweeps.
