Having already engineered a breakthrough campaign by finishing second in their respective Onondaga High School League races, four Solvay bowlers went to Rome’s King Pin Lanes for the last Thursday’s Section III Shootout.
In all, 38 girls and 40 boys bowlers took part in the tournament, where only the top two finishers would advance to Strike-N-Spare Lanes (Solvay’s home lanes during the regular season) for the March 14 state championships.
Ethan Bigelow had the best finish for the Bearcats, taking 18th in the boys event. He opened with a 244 to get into contention, following with 148 but then rebounding with a 234.
After a 158 fourth game, Bigelow closed with 203 and 207 to get to 1,194, better than more than half the field and topping teammate Alex Gallardo.
With a blistering 264 in his first game, Gallardo actually took the lead, but fell back with games of 154, 144, 163 and 193 before closing with a 204 to get to a total pinfall of 1,128 and 28th place.
On the girls side, Solvay’s Caitlin McCann finished 26th, peaking with a 196 third game during her 910 series. Anastasia LaFlair had a 167 and two games of 158 on her way to an 836 set and 33rd place.
It was Fulton’s Alexis Ingersoll (1,350) and Liverpool’s Ashley Hardy (1,315) advancing to the state tournament on the girls side, joined on the boys side by another Fulton bowler, Mitch Donaldson, who had a 1,395 series, just behind along the 1,410 from Cicero-North Syracuse’s Tyler Dottolo.
