Elizabeth Riley and Kailey Dowty helped power Graham to a third place finish in a highly competitive state bowling final. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Brian Bayless)
Urbana defeated Fairport Harding for the title; St. Marys, Mechanicsburg also have strong finishes
Columbus, OH – Looking at what the Graham girls bowling team had returning heading into this season, coach Phil Baker believed the pieces were there for the program to battle for its first Division II state championship.
The Falcons ended up coming close to reaching that plateau during what was their fifth consecutive state appearance.
On Friday at HP Lanes, Graham rolled a 3,690 during the qualifying round to earn the No. 1 seed but lost to eventual champion Urbana in a semifinal to finish a program-best third.
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“We had a really good season,” Baker said. “You’ve got to be happy with (third). We just had a bad set here, which is what it amounts to. You’ve got to win it when it comes down the line. We’ve been pretty solid all year, and sometimes you get one or two opens and it kind of spirals.
“I thought at the beginning of the year that we had an opportunity to win it all. We had a good, solid team, and over the last year, they’ve improved by 73 pins over their average. They’ve come a long way.”
In its semifinal of the championship round against fourth-seeded Urbana, Graham lost games of 159-137, 136-123 and 212-178.
Urbana defeated Fairport Harbor 3-1 for its first championship.
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Baker, who led the program to a seventh-place finish in 2022 and eighth the next year, is starting a program at Edison State Community College next winter.
Graham’s McKenzie Clark plants and delivers during warmups prior to the Bakers at HP Lanes in Columbus, Ohio.
Two of his players are expected to be Elizabeth Riley and Kailey Dowty, a pair of seniors who led the Falcons during the qualifying round by finishing fourth (656) and fifth (654), respectively.
“I feel like it was a great opportunity, and not everybody gets to experience the things we experience,” Riley said. “It’s a great thing our team gets to do.”
Graham opened the championship round by rallying to beat eighth-seeded Mechanicsburg 3-2 after losing two of the first three games.
Riley and Dowty each earned first-team all-state honors.
“Our team is very close, so I feel like coming into these big tournaments, we get together and bond and show what we can do,” Riley said. “I struggled a little bit in the first game (during the qualifying round), but once I got a hold of it, I let loose and had a 268 in the last game. The nerves kind of settled down.”
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While Riley rolled a 268 during the third game of the qualifying round to secure her all-Ohio spot, Dowty also finished that round strong, carding a 243 third game.
“The second game (when I rolled 187) could have been a little better,” Dowty said. “It went pretty well. (The lanes) got really dry fast. I wanted to bowl a 700, but it didn’t happen.”
Napoleon junior Arianna Kiessling shot 703 to win the individual championship, with East Liverpool senior Addison Rudibaugh (668) finishing runner-up and Urbana junior Emily Fisher (666) taking third.
Urbana senior Jazmyn Scott (650), Worthington Christian senior Anja Muskopf (634) and Versailles senior Danielle Francis (627) were among those who were second-team all-state honorees.
St. Mary’s was third (3,598) behind Graham (3,690) and Bryan (3,673) during the qualifying round but lost to sixth-seeded Fairport Harding in the first round of the championship round.
St. Mary’s junior, Kallie McKinley, finished 14th overall by rolling a 593 at HP Lanes in Columbus, Ohio.
For the Roughriders, junior Kallie McKinley finished 14th (593) to receive honorable mention all-state honors, junior Kaleigh Caywood was 16th (588) and sophomore Ali Kable placed 25th (560).
St. Marys had no seniors.
“Most of them bowled j.v. last year, except for Kaleigh,” Roughriders coach Jay Gibson said. “Just for some reason this year, we always seem to get hung up on the baker games. It’s been our weak point this year. We always qualify well, and just getting head-to-head, I don’t know if it’s just a matter of getting pushed to the limit or what happens, but it’s something we have to work on for next season. We had two juniors and three sophomores, so we’re a young team and they’ve all got plenty of experience now. We’ll see what happens next year.”
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Mechanicsburg, despite having just one senior and a mostly new lineup after earning the state runner-up trophy a year ago, totaled 3,404 during the qualifying round to edge Versailles (3,370) to set up the first-round matchup with Graham.
Leading the way for Mechanicsburg were juniors Ashton Waller (30th, 540) and Briana Popovich (tied for 36th, 531).
Worthington Christian Senior Anja Muskopf rolled a 634, earning her a spot on the second team, all-state group.
“I started off with a new team (after we) lost six to graduation last year, (including) five from varsity,” Mechanicsburg coach David Bush said. “These girls really impressed us this year.”
Also for Versailles, senior Danica York record a 580 during the qualifying round to finish 18th overall.
Francis competed at state in each of her four prep seasons, but this was by far her best finish.
“That’s the best series I’ve shot all season,” Francis said. “I just found that mark and stayed and relaxed, and it flowed well for me today. I really haven’t done well at state the past three years, so I’m really happy with my day today. The practice round went well, so I just felt more confident.”
Fort Recovery turned in a 12th-place finish (3,268) as sophomore Deanna Brown led the way by tying for 20th (571).