CENTRAL NEW YORK – With the recent experience of a 300 game and 824 series as a confidence-booster, Zach Kassel led the East Syracuse Minoa boys bowling team to Strike-N-Spare Lanes for Sunday’s Section III Division I team tournament.
The Spartans ultimately finished in fifth in Class A and sixth among the large schools, shooting a team score of 5,691, just behind Baldwinsville’s 5,708. Cicero-North Syracuse, with 6,108, won its first sectional title since 1995.
Yet it was Christian Brothers Academy bowler Tom Dearnaley that had the best individual series. Dearnaley shot four of his six games 205 or better, including a 225, to finish at 1,215 and 19th overall.
Just behind him, the duo of Alex Locke and Joe Gardner led ESM, each of them finishing with the exact same pinfall of 1,197 as Locke had a high game of 225 and Gardner shot a 243 in his second game.
Kassel, meanwhile, bowled just five games and got 978 with a 222 high game. Luke Liedka shot a 224 in his fourth of five games o his way to a 963 total as CBA’s Chanu Yang had a 941 for six games, with a final game of 191.
Before the sectional tournament, though, ESM first had a fun head-to-head match with Fayetteville-Manlius last Wednesday at Strike-N-Spare that saw ESM battle past the Hornets 5-2.
Kassel rolled just one game, a 193, but Locke, in his second of two games, rolled 10 strikes on his way to a 278 as Kyle Nissen had a 211 game and Kevin Herlihy chimed in with a 222.
F-M was led by Gabriel Williams, whose 561 series was capped by a 213 game. Cole Cox shot a second-game 208 in his 540 set as Henry Keeney finished with a 501 series.
The girls match between ESM and F-M also ended 5-2, but in the Hornets’ favor as the total pinfall was quite close.
By match’s end, F-M had 2,491 to ESM’s 2,454, with Samantha Geiss shooting a 483 series to lead the Hornets. Andrea Aguilar-Miranda (432 series), Ashlynn Yonge (425 series) and Teagan Hunt (415 series) were close behind as Nicole Baker led ESM with a 476 series and high game of 185, just ahead of Alana Tuberville’s 475 set.
F-M had bowled earlier in the week and lost a pair of 7-0 decisions to Fulton. Sean Bird’s 560 series led the boys’ Hornets ahead of Cox, whose 206 game was part of a 540 set, and Williams, who had a 529 series. Kyler Stuber’s 584 series and 223 high game paced the Red Dragons.
On the girls side at Lakeview Lanes, F-M got to witness Fulton’s Hailey Payment shoot 258, 208 and 248 for a career-best 715 series along with 567 sets from Taryn Murphy and Morgan Sheldon, each beating the 455 series from Yonge, who was five pins ahead of 450s from Aguilar-Miranda and Geiss.
Bishop Grimes also bowled last Monday and also was swept 7-0 in a pair of matches, with Homer as the opposition. The Trojans’ John Bishop was nearly perfect in a 279 game as part of a 632 series that offset a 483 series by the Cobras’ Casey Mierek and 438 series from Alec Kinne. Lania Young led the Grimes girls with a three-game total of 401 as Wijeong Suh had a 391 series.
