LIMA – Versailles’ varsity girls bowling team traveled to Lima on Jan. 16 to bowl in the Pioneer Classic at Century Lanes, and finished sixth overall.
The tournament consisted of 24 teams from throughout Ohio. The format included three regular games and five Baker games with a cut to the top eight following. Brackets placed those in the top eight to compete in the best-of-five Baker games.
The Versailles girls started off strong, making the first cut positioned at sixth overall.
Individual game scores were high including Morgan Heitkamp with games of 146, 223 and 211 for a 580 series; Maggie Hedrick with games of 183, 157 and 159 for a 499 series; Brigette Holsapple with games of 153, 152 and 179 for a 484 series; Makenzie Berning with a 215; Morgan Barlage with a 190; Lindsay Cheadle with a 163 and Haddi Treon with a 128.
This computed together for the Versailles team score to be 825, 787 and 902 for a total of 2,514.
“We had some trouble in the second regular game but were able to hit our marks and gain some ground in regular game No. 3,” Coach Tyler Phlipot said.
Helping the Tigers get to bracket play was a high total score in Bakers of 884. This was the second highest Baker set score across the board. Versailles’ Baker scores included games of 162, 209, 166, 195 and 152.
Following a lunch break sixth-seeded Versailles faced third-seeded Bellefontaine, which is a Division I school and was joined in bracket play by four other Division I schools.
“It is fun to compete at a level where five of the seven teams you may face are Division I schools,” Phlipot said. “These tournaments really help us get stronger against good competition. We are always happy to compete against higher division teams before we go to the (Ohio High School Athletic Association) tournament.”
Unfortunately, the Tigers fell in four games to Bellefontaine and weren’t able to advance past the first bracket.
Bellefontaine won the first game 180-159, Versailles won the second game 214-146, Bellefontaine won the third game 182-158, and Bellefontaine won the fourth game 160-147.
The Tigers had big chances in the fourth game including two opens in the eighth and ninth frame.
The oil pattern was tough and the girls kept focus even when they fell behind, Phlipot said, and these are the opportunities that best prepare the team to make another appearance at the state tournament.