MATTYDALE – A single, solitary pin – one less strike here, or one less conversion there over a course of six games and 60 frames – kept Christian Brothers Academy girls bowler Eliana Occhino from the 2022 championship in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association tournament.
When the same event took place 12 months later at Strike-N-Spare Lanes, no one, by any margin, would fare better than Occhino, who went to the lead in the middle of the tournament and would ultimately stay there to add yet another state title to CBA’s long and distinct athletic history.
Just as before, Occhino was part of a group of Section III All-Stars in the state tournament, having qualified by finishing at the top of their leagues or through a top-two finish in February’s sectional Shoot-Out.
Ironically, two of the teammates here, Kenzie Gill and Kenzi Ormsby, were from Liverpool, and it was a Liverpool bowler, Ashley Hardy, who had edged Occhino by that single pin in last March’s NYSPHSAA tournament.
In the opening game on Saturday, Occhino shot a 239, putting her in third place as Section Xi’s Leighanna Tolan led with 268. Improving to a 247 in the second, Occhino now found herself second as Kaelynn Weber (Section VI) began with games of 244 and 259.
A third-game 212 meant that Occhino had reached the midway point with 698. She trailed Webber by 40 pins, but was about to make up all of it.
During a crucial fourth game, while Weber had a 206, Occhino strung together strikes and got a 245, leaving the two a single pin apart.
Neither of the leaders dazzled in the fifth game, but Occhino made few mistakes in her 215 and, after Weber got 202, moved into the lead with a single game to go.
When Weber faded to a final-game 165, Occhino only had to worry about Section IV bowler Emily Huntley, from Horseheads, who had shot 206 and 214 before a blistering 266 in the third put her in contention.
After going 189 in the fourth, Huntley put up a 237, and a 214 in the final game left Huntley at 1,326, so Occhino still needed a good sixth game to take place.
That’s exactly what happened. Occhino’s 206 put her at 1,364, an average of 227.33 that was more than six pins ahead of Huntley per game. Section II’s Amy Chrzanowski was third with 1,312 and Webber fourth with 1,311.
Gill did best among the remaining Section III bowlers, taking 11th place with 1,245 as she had games of 240 and 234 along the way. Section III was fifth in the team event as Section VI, from Western New York, won with 6.284…beating Long Island’s Section XI (6,283) by, ironically enough, a single pin.
