By Susan Jenior

Staff Writer

As the bowling season rolls its way toward the OHSAA postseason tournaments, there are a few loose ends to tie up both for conferences and out-of-conference events, giving bowlers every opportunity to be ready for the tournament trail ahead.

CONFERENCE TOURNAMENTS

The Portage Trail Conference holds the boys and girls conference championships at Spins Bowl in Kent on Saturday. The Rootstown Rovers boys and girls teams are the defending champions and are coming off a solid week of event and matches.

Additional conference tournaments coming up include Southeast and Garfield in the Mahoning Valley Conference, Crestwood at the Chagrin Valley Conference, along with Ravenna, Streetsboro and Field at the Metro Athletic Conference and Kent Roosevelt at the Suburban Conference event.

EASTBURY VARSITY INVITATIONAL

Teams from Northeast Ohio competed in the Eastbury Varsity Invitational at Eastbury Lanes,  with both Rootstown and Ravenna varsity bowling teams competing.

In the boys division, the Rovers finished third in qualifying and Ravenna sixth. In the girls, the Rovers earned fifth place in qualifying and Ravenna girls landed in 17th.

Both the Rovers’ boys and girls advanced to the quarterfinals as the boys lost to Claymont.

The Rovers’ girls advanced to the semifinals, defeating Minerva in the quarterfinals and losing to Fairport Harbor Harding in the semi-finals.

Cassie Egli and Emma Day earned tied for the 11th-highest series, respectively, both bowling 521 for the Rovers.

Ravenna’s best was rolled by Julia Stratton, a 409 series, with a 187 high game.

The Ravens’ Jacob Stefansic earned ninth-high series, bowling a 612 with a 225 high game and Jeriah Miller was 12th, 214-608.

Rootstown’s Sean Boveington finished 14th, 225-599.

STREETSBORO ROCKETS

The Rockets had two matches this past week against Metro Athletic Conference opponents.

The Rockets’ girls bested Ravenna 1,701 to 1,203 as Amy Rein bowled the high two-game set for the winning team, a 158-313. High series in the match was tossed by Ravenna’s Julia Stratton 182-320.

The Rockets’ boys were defeated by Ravenna 2,563 to 2,139 as two 400 series were rolled in the match: Ravenna’s Jeriah Miller (228-256 484) and the Rockets’ Connor Stevens (201-246 447).

The Rockets welcomed Woodridge to Kent Lanes as the boys lost to the Bulldogs 2,414 to 2,281 and the Streetsboro girls earned their second victory of the week, topping the visiting team 1,842 to 1,398.

Streetsboro’s high game was rolled by Kendall Clark 193 and high series tossed by Amy Rein 339.

Connor Stevens rolled a 247-436 to lead the boys.

OHSAA TOURNAMENTS

The postseason tournaments, with a trip to the state tournament on the line, get started for Division-I teams in Portage County on Feb. 15 at Holiday Lanes in Struthers.

The Ravenna boys and Kent Roosevelt girls and boys begin their competition to advance to the Roseland Lanes District on Feb. 23 and 24.

Division-II teams will compete at Spins Bowl in Kent, with girls teams bowling on Feb. 7 and boys on Feb. 10.

Teams at Spins include Field boys and girls, Garfield boys and girls, Ravenna girls, Rootstown boys and girls and southeast girls as they compete for a spot in the district event again at Roseland Lanes on Feb. 21 and Feb. 22.

ON A PERSONAL NOTE

I love tournament season in bowling.

As the tournament director for the Rover Sectional Preview Tournament, we welcomed more than 56 teams to Spins Bowl in Kent over the Martin Luther King weekend and it was pure fun.

Athletes can enjoy their individual achievements and know that what they accomplish is a part of the team that leads them to victory.

The Baker games sees the athletes chanting and cheering for each other, not only their own team but the team they are competing against as strikes are bowled and spares converted.

Bowling is a spectator sport and, if you find that hard to believe, go watch your home school team bowl in a tournament and join in the excitement.