BY TIM TAYLORValley Sports Report
SYRACUSE — The pins didn’t fall like Waverly hoped they would as the Wolverines placed sixth at the New York State Division 2 Boys Bowling Championships at Strike N' Spare Lanes here Sunday.
Waverly opened the tournament with a solid 1099 game, putting the Section IV champions just in second place just nine pins behind front-running Seaford from Section VIII Long Island. The Wolverines slipped to fifth after a 1038 in game two and were 114 pins behind the leader, but cut the gap to with an 1104 in game three.
The second session was a struggle for Waverly with games of 985 and 886 wrapped around a 1006.
“I don't want to take away from the season,” coach Derek Bowman said. “We've had a heck of a season, fortunate to win the STAC championship, fortunate to win our section and the state qualifier. They qualified so it's a heck of an accomplishment, but obviously it's not the performance we’ve had. Hopefully, we can learn from this as a young group.”
By the end of the tournament, four of the top five teams had rolled over 1,000 in all six games while another had just one game below 1,000 (995).
Marlboro from Section IX (Mid-Hudson) took the team title with a total pinfall of 6468, edging Seaford by three pins. Lansingburgh from Section 2 (Capital District) was third at 6439, followed by Peru from Section VII (Champlain Area) with 6413, Depew from Section VI (Western New York) at 6366 and Waverly at 6118.
Fourth in 2023 and second in 2024, there’s little doubt other teams were aware that Waverly came in capable of challenging for the championship.
“With those expectations, you’ve got to be able to perform,” Bowman said. “Unfortunately, we didn't perform great today. We were all right after the first three and then we moved fair and it just got away from us, got a little squirreled. The lane conditions were tough for us to figure out, but frustrating. Hopefully we'll bounce back from it and figure it out next year.”
Bowman found out at the last minute that the tournament format changed this year, with six bowlers from each team competing on split lanes. The lowest score would be thrown out in each game.
“It was thrown upon us late that it was three on three,” he said. “We bowl all year five-on-five and then all of a sudden on Thursday we found out it's three-on-three, which changes a little bit, but everybody's going on the same thing, same pattern so there's no excuses for us.”
Derek Johnson led the Wolverines in the first session with a 723 series which included 274, 235 and 214. He shot 580 in the second session with a high game of 233, and had a six-game total of 1303. His 274 was the third-highest game of the tourney and just four pins behind the high game recorded by Pat Tarsio of Marlboro. Johnson was also ninth over in a field of 66 competitors.
Tristan Campbell was next in line for Waverly with an 1160 total, heading up a group of four Wolverines separated by just 17 pins. Colten Santalucia posted an 1150, Maison Apgar had an 1148 and Dom Wood added an 1143.
Campbell had a 224-598 and a 203-562, Santalucia rolled 258-655 and 177-495, Apgar scored 223-553 and 204-595, and Wood shot 225-579 and 213-564. They placed 32nd, 34th, 35th and 37th, respectively.
Griffin Walter bowled the first five games and recorded a 226-633 in the first session and had a 197 high game in the second. Trevor Allen completed in game six and contributed a 194. Allen also received the sportsmanship award.
Waverly, which won the STAC championship, the Section IV Class C title and its third consecutive state qualifier, will look to make it four trips to Syracuse next season. The Wolverines return everyone except Wood.
“It's unfortunate for Dom, our senior, but if we learn from that, hopefully we can repeat and get back to work to get back here next year,” Bowman said.
The coach will take a little break before turning his focus to next season.
“I'll let this go for a little bit and kind of figure it out,” Bowman said.
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IN PHOTO 1: Derek Johnson. ... IN TOP PHOTO: Dom Wood. ... PHOTOS BY TIM TAYLOR.
