VERSAILLES — The Versailles Varsity Boys Bowling team traveled to The Columbus Square Bowling Palace on December 3 to compete in the 13th Annual Ohio High School “Kick-Off” Invitational.

The bowling format was three regular games and two baker games, with each game bowled on a different pair of lanes. Facing some unfortunate lane trouble and a challenging oil pattern, the Tigers rolled an 885 in game 1. A new pair of lanes continued to challenge the Tigers, and they finished game 2 with an 846 but improved to a 939 in game 3. Failing to convert some spares in the bakers, they rolled 162 and 188 for a qualifying round total of 3020.

The bowlers took a lunch break while the scores were tallied to determine the top 16 teams who would advance to the Championship Round. Lunch was cut short when the coaches for Versailles and Struthers were called in for a roll-off as the teams were tied for the 12th qualifying spot. Alex Groff rolled the 9th/10th frame roll-off against a Struthers bowler, and after a strike against their 7-spare in the 9th, Struthers came out on top in the 10th, putting the Tigers into 13th place.

The Tigers moved on to match play against #4 seed Boardman (Youngstown) Spartans. The Spartans took game 1 (188 to 138) and game 3 (179 to 132), while the Tigers took game 2 (152 to 119) and game 4 (212 to 168), bringing the match to a 5th game. The Tigers looked stronger as the match continued, but they fell short by 7 pins in the final game (208 to 201) to end their run.

Alex Groff was the lead scorer for the Tigers with a 601 series (199, 160, 242), finishing 14th overall out of 180 bowlers. Jacob Wenig’s series total was 574 (163, 198, 213) for 34th place. Kyle Cotner rolled 537 (184, 208, 145) for 55th place, and Luke Shellhaas racked up a 530 (191, 148, 191) for 63rd place.

The Tigers will travel to Woodcrest Lanes in Union City, Ohio on Saturday, Dec. 10 to face the Mississinawa Valley Blackhawks at 9:45AM Please visit wohsbc.com for the schedule and additional conference details.