By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Topeka has long been known as a bowling town, and Shawnee Heights' boys and Seaman's girls teams added to that tradition on Thursday at Wichita's Bowlero Northrock with a dominant performance in the Class 5A state tournament, sweeping the state team championships by a combined 461 pins.
Shawnee Heights celebrates its Class 5A state boys team championship after putting three bowlers in the top 10 en route to a 103-pin victory. [Photo by Brent Maycock/KSHSAA Covered]
Competing in Thursday's morning session, Shawnee Heights's boys put three bowlers in the top 10 and all six T-Birds bowled 600-plus series, including two with 700-plus series, as Heights won its second state 5A team championship in three seasons by a 3,727-3,624 margin over Bishop Carroll.
Seaman's girls celebrate their 358-pin win in Thursday's Class 5A state bowling tournament at Wichita's Bowlero Northrock. [Photo by Brent Maycock/KSHSAA Covered]
Seaman's girls then took center stage in the afternoon and ran away with the 5A girls title by a whopping 358 pins (3,297-2,939) over Emporia as third-place Claire LaDuke led four Vikings in the top 16.
Senior Chevy Stallbaumer bowled a 738 three-game series to pace Shawnee Heights' boys with a sixth-place individual finish while Larry Donath finished eighth with a 725 series and Evan Jones finished 10th with a 693.
Senior Chevy Stallbaumer paced state champion Shawnee Heights with a sixth-place individual finish with a 738 series Thursday in Wichita. [Photo by Brent Maycock/KSHSAA Covered]
Stallbaumer put together games of 255, 237 and 246 while Donath rolled a final-game 276 after 222 and 227 games and Jones' series included games of 242, 224 and 227.
The T-Birds also got a 645 series from Braden Evans, a 640 from Henry Schattilly and a 636 from Kaden Evans.
Bishop Carroll's Ryan Pfeifer won the 5A individual championship with a 770 series to lead the Eagles to their second-place team finish while Andover finished third at 3,612, 12 pins behind Carroll.
Seaman's Garrett Shaw, competing as an individual, earned a state medal with a 15th-place finish, registering a 678 series.
Seaman's Claire LaDuke posted a third-place finish in Thursday's Class 5A state bowling tournament. [Photo by Brent Maycock/KSHSAA Covered]
LaDuke rolled a 688 series en route to her third-place individual finish to pace the Seaman girls while Leah Crawford finished fifth with a 655 series, Paige Snyder placed eighth with a 588 and Ava Carlson was 16th with a 552 series.
LaDuke put together a consistently strong series with games of 234, 247 and 207 while Crawford had the Vikings' high game of the day with a final game 254.
The Vikings also got a 515 series from Kayla Duncan and a 479 from Laci Cole.
Seaman also led the field with an 807 four-game total in its four Baker format games, including games of 245 and 226.
Shawnee Heights' girls finished fifth as a team with a 2,794 total while Reese Bell finished 14th with 560 series and Addison VanMetre was 15th with a 558.
Andover Central's Addison Crumley, competing as an individual, won the state individual title with a 718 series.
