ONONDAGA COUNTY – It was quite a week for Christian Brothers Academy girls bowling star Eliana Occhino, who won a string of post-season tournaments even as she was announcing her future competitive and academic plans.
Occhino, a junior and two-time New York State Public High School Athletic Association individual champion, announced that, in the fall of 2025, she would attend Jacksonville State University in Alabama and bowl for the nation’s top-ranked program.
This happened in between two victories Occhino attained, first at last Wednesday’s Onondaga High School League championships at Strike-N-Spare Lanes, then again at Sunday’s Section III team tournament at Flamingo Bowl.
Occhino rolled games of 204, 230 and 221 at the league tournament, her 655 series helping CBA to a second-place team score of 2,598 that only trailed the 2,932 from Homer and, among individuals, beat Cortland’s Emma Smith (606 series) by 49 pins.
The sectional tournament involved difficult lane conditions at Flamingo, and CBA, as a team, finished fifth in Division II (small schools) with 3,911 and third in Class C behind West Canada Valley and Adirondack.
As for Occhino, she started with a rare struggle in the opening game with 163, but picked it up with 212 and 205 the rest of the morning before shooting 191 in the fourth game.
Then she kicked into top form, starting with a 221 in the fifth game that put her back in contention for top individual honors, though Fulton’s Hailey Payment still led and Red Dragons teammate Addison Nichols was close, too.
Saving her best for the final game, though, Occhino shot 255, the best individual game of the entire tournament, which put her at 1,247 overall, holding off Nichols, who had 1,208, and overtaking Payment, whose final game 164 left her at 1,205.
While all this was going on, East Syracuse Minoa and Fayetteville-Manlius and were part of the Class A sectional tournament, the Spartans finishing fourth in Class A and the Hornets fifth as Rome Free Academy (5,196) won the Class A team title and Fulton (5,600) was the top large school.
Individually, Alana Tuberville led ESM, her 973 series (183 high game) just ahead of the 971 series (200 high game) from F-M’s Lillian Squire as the Hornets’ Samantha Geiss posted a 953 series with a closing game of 180. Ruth Birmingham had a 922 series and Jewelianna Hallock a 915 series for the Spartans.
