Bryana Twining of Bath and Skyler Briggs of Shawnee will finalize the paperwork to further their professional career development as well as to bowl for Lourdes University Wednesday. The signing with Torrie Bartalone, the current coach of the lady’s and men’s teams for the school, will occur at 20th Century Lanes around 4:30 p.m.
Jordyn Stewart of Elida had signed at an earlier date.
The signing of Twining, Stewart and Briggs continues to illustrate the strength of the teams in our area. The West Ohio High School Bowling Conference (WOHSBC) for several years now has assisted in the helping youth establish their bowling credentials and utilize the same to attend college. The signing of these three strong youth gives indication that the Western Buckeye League is in the process of developing the same type of pedigree.
It also shows something else. Where in the past the strength of high school bowling youth has been housed in Auglaize and Mercer County, Allen County is clearly on the rise.
Throughout this past season, bowling aficionados have praised the abilities of the high school bowlers in our area, notably the six high schools that roll in either the WBL or the WOHSBC. Each call 20th Century home for practice and high school matches and as an employee of that company I cannot say that I disagree.
It has also given me a chance to see the talent up close and personal whom compete for the area schools or those who are LBA sanctioned bowlers. The talent is amazing and as I suggested last week it is only going to get better in the future.
One of the veteran presences in our community asked why our paper or at the very least myself did not feature bowlers the same way we did the stars of other scholastic teams. For now I will take it that as a sign that the sport has indeed arrived in our community and who knows what the future may bring.
We will deal with Skyler and the other seven males who have made this version of an all star team next week after we continue to tabulate just who the boy’s team should be.
For this week however let’s take a look at the top eight girls. It is a group that would not only stand tall against the best of the best from Auglaize and Mercer Counties but also the best boys in our own county.
It is an interesting group that consists of a three headed monster, two sets of cousins, a pair of childhood friends, three district champions, four state qualifiers, a state champion, two all WBL champs and an all WOHSBC champ. Pretty impressive I tell you. Whoops and two young ladies who earlier this spring claimed the High School Doubles championship.
Let see if we can sort this out some! Certainly a lot of bling there for just eight young ladies!
The three-headed monster would be Shawnee teammates, Allie Meeker, Dayle Aldrich and Abbey Ambroza. There were clearly times over the last two years where Shawnee looked outmanned yet this trio of stars were able to lift their teammates and get the job done.
Two sets of cousins … The Twinings – Bryana of Bath and Morgan of Lima Senior and the Riepenhoffs o Cecilia and Hannah of LCC.
The OHSAA state D2 champion – Bryana
The three district champions – Jordyn, Cecilia and Morgan
The two WBL Champs – Bryana and Dayle
The two time WOHSBC champ – Dayle
State doubles champions – Allie and Dayle
Four State qualifiers – Jordyn, Cecilia, Morgan and of course Bryana
WOHSBC singles champion – Cecilia … 4th Hannah
In all honesty the resumes of the top ladies is such that I really do not think that a boy’s team can be formed to beat them in match play and I have a great deal of respect for the top three in that group.
I actually had a person or two that mentioned Olivia Miller but this list will deal strictly with the high school youth.
Age would also play a part in two other slots on the list!
All good teams have to have a great bench, bowling is not any different!
The three young ladies that form the second line for this team are each amazing in their own right and two still have time to rise through the ranks. The second unit is Ambroza, Stewart and Hannah Riepenhoff.
The top five each pass the eyeball test of being the best of the group. The final decision was very hard and in truth probably does not represent who will have the best ‘adult career.’
Slots three, four and five were very tough to assess. Cecilia went head to head in boys competition all season and drew a lot of praise from throughout the conference. She gets further positive strokes here for staying with the family and rolling with and against the boys instead of making another run at the girls D2 state.
Allie Meeker is silk, she had a great season at anchor for a very good Shawnee team. It could be argued that she will have the better adult career and that she deserves a higher rank here.
Morgan Twining is a bowler that I would pay to watch bowl. She will only get better next season as a senior and who know may deserve a higher rank here as well.
It would have been easy to say Bryana as she won the state but Dayle dominated the WBL and the WOHSBC for the majority of the season. I/we cannot separate them and for that reason Bryana and Dayle are co-bowlers of the year as it is seen by this writer and those who contributed.
Next week the boys … feel free to provide input at [email protected]
.neFileBlock {
margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.neFileBlock p {
margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
.neFileBlock .neFile {
border-bottom: 1px dotted #aaa;
padding-bottom: 5px;
padding-top: 10px;
}
.neFileBlock .neCaption {
font-size: 85%;
}
