MATTYDALE – Armed with the advantage of competing at its home venue, the Cicero-North Syracuse boys bowling team took aim at a New York State Public High School Athletic Association Division I championship last Friday afternoon.
Yet the Northstars could not quite match the performance it had winning the Section III title a month earlier, finishing 10th in a competitive field.
C-NS was unable to recover from scoring 936 in the first of its six games. It improved to 1,019 and 1,051 to round out the morning, but then had 971 and 966 games in the afternoon before closing with 1,026 for an aggregate of 5,969.
A back-and-forth battle at the top turned when Section I’s Arlington took the lead in the fourth game with 1,217. Ultimately, Arlington’s 6.751 won the state Division I title by 107 pins over runner-up Elmira.
Individually, Terry Miller led the Northstars with games of 227 and 224 on his way to a 1,210 series, while Jayson Gilchrist posted a 1,170 series with games of 209 and 203.
Garrett Arnold had a 1,169 series, one pin behind Gilchrist, with games of 221 and 217. Nehemiah Bachmann shot 214 and 212 during his 1.139 set as Cameron Miller had five games of 999 and Hunter Baciuska had an 893 in his five games.
A day later at Strike-N-Spare, Arnold joined Section III All-Star teams for the composite team portion of the state Division I tournament following a season where he rolled 300 games three different times, including one in the Section III Shootout.
Arnold had with him ESM’s Zach Kassel along with Baldwinsville teammates Zenon Gasirowski and Jordan Sevigny, plus two bowlers from New Hartford, Ray Cyr and J.P. Lazzaro.
Kassel would net the only 300 of the tournament in his second game and then, with a 254 in the final game, rally to win the individual tournament with 1,436 a mere 12 pins ahead of Section II’s Matt Rogers, from Mohanasen.
Again Arnold would put up big games of his own, starting with a 279 with 10 strikes to take the early lead. As Kassel got his 300, Arnold put up 242, but fell to 189 in each of the next two games, only to get 202 and then charge with a 266 in the final game to rise up to seventh place with 266.
Liverpool girls bowler Sara Conover was here, too, on the main sectional All-Star side with Fulton teammates Hailey Payment and Molly Smith plus B’ville’s Sam Hass, West Genesee’s Lorelai Leskoske and Rome Free Academy’s Mylie Weyant.
Conover recovered from an opening 161 to post her best game of 223 in the second. She would also shoot 205 in the third game and 206 in the fifth game, with 178 and 195 in the other games.
Finishing with an 1,168 aggregate, Conover was in 30th place, just ahead of Leskoske’s 1,159 and Smith’s 1,148 but behind the twin 1,185 totals from Payment and Hass.
Weyant topped the entire field. Shooting five games of 231 or better including a third-game 265, Weyant finished at 1,375, a 12-pin victory over East Islip’s Dakota Collins and completing a Section III sweep in both divisions as Christian Brothers Academy’s Elianna Occhino earned her third state title in Division II with 1,371.
