By Rick Peterson
TopSports.news
The city of Topeka will be well-represented in this week's state bowling championships at Wichita, with six city teams and seven individuals punching their tickets to state.
All seven city schools will have representatives in state competition.
Hayden's boys and girls teams will compete in Wednesday's first-ever Class 4A-1A state tourney at Bowlero-Wichita after sweeping regional team championships while Washburn Rural's girls regional champs will compete in Thursday's 6A meet at Bowlero-Northrock and Seaman's boys and girls and Shawnee Heights' boys will all take part in Friday's 5A state tournament at Northrock.
Topeka High's Thomas Patterson and Washburn Rural's Cody Spangler will compete as individuals in the 6A boys state meet while Highland Park's Cristian Reyes and Topeka West's Dason Tidwell will compete as individuals in the 5A boys tourney and West's Brenna Rutschmann and Megan Wood and Shawnee Heights' Reese Bell all qualified for the 5A girls event.
Class 6A
The Class 6A regional team champion Washburn Rural girls will compete in Thursday's Class 6A state tournament Bowlero-Northrock in Wichita.
Washburn Rural's girls react to the announcement that they finished first in last Wednesday's Class 6A regional bowling tournament. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Senior Claire Ireland paced the Junior Blues at regionals with a 595 three-game series to finish fifth individually while three other Rural bowlers posted top-15 finishes.
Washburn Rural finished its regional performance with a strong performance in the four Baker format games, taking a 3,040-2,988 victory over Olathe Northwest and Mill Valley, who tied for second in the team standings.
Ireland was the lone Rural bowler to finish in the top 10 individually, but Megan Glinka (550) and Elizabeth Poling (547) finished 11th and 12th and Gabby Martinez was 15th (537).
Camrynn Ahrens added a 502 series and Ashley Billups a 493 to round out Rural's lineup.
The Rural boys saw their 6A championship reign come to an end with a sixth-place team finish in the regional tournament, but the Junior Blues will be represented at state by Cody Spangler, who bowled a 664 series to finish seventh individually and earn the fourth of six individual state berths.
Thomas Patterson, Topeka High
Topeka High will be represented at state by senior Thomas Patterson, who finished fifth in the regional tournament with a 682 series to earn the tournament's second individual state berth.
Patterson, who is in his second season of high school bowling, rolled games of 244, 234 and 204 to earn his state berth.
The 6A state meet will get under way Thursday with the boys tournament at 8:25 a.m., followed by the girls event at 1:15 p.m.
Seaman's boys bowling team will enter state on a hot streak after winning UKC and Class 5A regional team titles. [Photo courtesy of Seaman Athletics]
Seaman's girls bowling team enters Friday's state tournament on the heels of team titles in the UKC and Class 5A regional meets. [Photo courtesy of Seaman Athletics]
Class 5A
Seaman swept the boys and girls team championships in last Thursday's regional tournament at Hutchinson while Shawnee Heights also qualified its boys team for Friday's state tournament at Northrock-Bowlero and Topeka West and Highland Park combined for multiple individual state berths.
Seaman and Shawnee Heights went one-two in the boys regional tournament, with the Vikings edging the T-Birds by a 20-pin margin (3,239-3,219).
Seaman's Riley Parkhurst and Dominic Figueroa tied for the regional title with 640 series while the Vikings' Dylan Hunt finished sixth (626) and Alex Prescott 12th (575).
Landon Huxman (498) and Carson Wood (461) rounded out the Vikings' lineup.
Shawnee Heights' boys put four bowlers in the top places, led by Donavan Davis, who finished seventh with a 604 series.
Heights' Trey Donath finished 13th (569), Caden Cochrane 18th (550) and Henry Schattilly 19th (548) while Kaden Evans (527) and Evan Jones (498) rounded out the T-Birds' lineup.
Highland Park's Cristian Reyes and Topeka West's Dason Tidwell both earned individual boys state berths, with Reyes finishing fifth with a 635 series and Tidwell placing 14th with a 565 series.
Seaman won the girls regional team championship by a 2,800-2,770 margin over Salina South while Topeka West's Brenna Rutschmann won the individual title with a 606 series.
Seaman put five bowlers in the top 20 at regionals, led by individual runnerup Cheyenne Turkin, who bowled a 571 series.
The Vikings also got a seventh-place finish from Claire LaDuke (541), a ninth-place showing from Kayla Mize (526), a tie for 13th from Paige Snyder (505) and a 20th-place finish from JaeLinn Thetford (465).
Ava Carson rounded out the Vikings' lineup with a 435 series.
Rutschman was one of three city bowlers to earn individual state berths for state, with Shawnee Heights' Reese Bell earning the fourth of six individual spots with a 512 series and Topeka West's Megan Wood earning the sixth spot with a 486 series.
The 5A state meet will get under way Friday with the boys tournament at 8:25 a.m., followed by the girls event at 1:15 p.m.
Class 4A-1A
Hayden will send its girls and boys teams to the first Kansas State High School Activities Association 4A-1A state tournament Wednesday at Bowlero-Wichita after sweeping the regional team championships in last Wednesday's regional tournament at Gage Bowl.
Hayden celebrates a strike during the last Wednesday's Class 4A-1A regional tournament at Gage Bowl. Hayden swept the boys and girls team titles. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Hayden's boys, led by junior individual champion Chase Blaser, put four bowlers in the top 11 places individually as the Wildcats won the regional team title by a 2,974-2,885 margin over Ottawa.
Blaser rolled games of 199, 210 and 194 for a 604 series to win the individual title by seven pins while Hayden junior Trevor Christy tied for eighth (551), junior John Strickland finished 10th (526) and freshman Kelton Meier 11th (525).
Junior Caston Meier (473) and freshman Reece Renyer (445) rounded out the Wildcat lineup.
Junior Emily Lee finished third individually with a 503 series to pace Hayden's girls as the Wildcats took the team title by a 2,369-2,338 margin over Ottawa.
Junior Ashley Lee tied for fifth in the individual standings (480), while senior Kinsley Reynoso was seventh (427) and sophomore Jenna Henkensiefken finished 11th (385).
Clemence Henry took 24th for the Wildcats with a 311 series.
The 4A-1A boys tournament will begin at 8:25 a.m. Wednesday, followed by the girls tournament at 1:15 p.m.
