High school bowling: Open Door, Brookside girls make district for first time; Clearview boys going back

MEDINA — The Open Door girls broke down the door and Brookside followed them through it Sunday at the Division II sectional bowling tournament Sunday at Medina AMF. Open Door and Brookside advanced to the district tournament for the first time, finishing second and third, respectively, out of the three team qualifiers behind defending champion Triway. On the boys side, Clearview was the only local qualifier, taking third out of the three team qualifiers. Lutheran West won and defending champ Triway was second. Allison Skalba led the Open Door girls with a 514 series, the seventh-best in the tournament. "The words are indescribable but I'm elated," said Skalba, a senior. "Spare making and Baker bowling were the difference. Spares in the game are as valuable as strikes, especially on the sport shot because it's harder. The Baker was just about everyone coming together. We did such a fantastic job." Open Door was fifth after the three regular games with a 2,164 pinfall, but were not far behind Triway (2,845), Brookside (2,200) and Firelands (2,183). The Patriots' 906 Baker score was topped only by Triway's 971. "As the lanes break down it's definitely difficult to adjust, but I think we did a really great job with that," Skalba said. "It took awhile but I think we did adjust nicely and we pulled it off." Freshmen Gabriella Riba (504) and Anna Koglman (486) were ninth and 13th in high series for the Patriots. "We put a lot of work in," Open Door coach Mark Frazier said. "We've been working on this program for eight years. Not too many work harder than we do. We practice all the time. I knew if we executed what we worked on, I knew we would be OK." Not bad for a program that finished eighth at the Medina sectional he last two years. A year ago, the Brookside girls were fourth, just one spot out of the money. Sunday it was all in the cards for the Cardinals. Saige Green, a junior in her second year on the team, led Brookside with a 516 series, good for sixth best. Last season she was 17th at Medina with a 470. "It hasn't totally sunk in yet but it feels great," she said. "I only started bowling for the high school my sophomore year so it feels very good to move on. We supported each other throughout the tournament today even when there were struggles and we got each other up energy-wise. Every time we got a strike we do our chants. The chants really energize us and makes us excited." Junior Payton Clapp (484) and senior Abby Davis (432) of Brookside were 14th and 23rd overall for high series. Juniors Patrick Robles (562) and Drew Staller (556), along with senior Jeremiah Bowens (541) and sophomore Ryan Seaburn (515), led the way for the Clearview boys, who earned their first district berth since qualifying back-to-back in 2018 and 2019. "It's very exciting," said Robles, an Elyria Catholic transfer. "It feels great to be able to do this with some really great teammates. We had some good bowlers when I was at EC, but there just weren't enough good ones to get us through to districts. The fourth and fifth Baker (201 and 194) were big keys for us today." Lorain County bowlers also did well in singles play, grabbing all three district berths for both boys and girls. Wellington senior Brandon Rutkowski took the boys singles title with a 652 series (185-264-203). His brother, Kevin, a 2020 Wellington grad, won the 2019 Medina sectional singles as a junior with a 570. "My adjustments went well," Rutkowski said. "I just needed to move a couple boards over. Nothing too much. Footing was key. I just had to make sure I moved forward a little bit. For my ball, I just had to make sure to hit my mark between my two arrows." Brookside junior Mike Bilczo (635) and Firelands senior Connor Cordy (583) finished got the other singles berths. Both were district qualifiers last year as team members. It was bittersweet for Cordy, whose team struggled after winning the North Shore Bowling Conference Division 2 Tournament a week earlier. The Falcons had an impressive 4,190 score, beating second-place Clearview by a whopping 452 pins. "I wish I could be where I am right now with my teammates, but I'm glad I made it through," Cordy said. "The very end pair (lane No. 35 and 36), the pair that Clearview started on, the oil was very messed up for some reason and nobody's balls were hooking. We had to learn how to bowl on that pair. That was game 3 (784)." That score left Firelands 119 pins and in fifth place behind heading into the Baker round. Firelands sophomore Mandy DeWitt was the No. 1 singles qualifier for the girls with a 539 series (214-202-123). DeWitt held off Wellington sophomore Whitney Kirschner (522), who earned her second straight trip to districts. Falcons sophomore Lesi Leskovska grabbed the No. 3 spot (505). "It feels really, really good because I was getting a bit down on myself after my third game," DeWitt said. "My first two games went really well, but then I suddenly fell off. But I kind of just reset myself (for Baker). That helped a lot." Qualifying was a bit of relief for Kirschner, who was coming off a winning tournament score of 598 at the NSBC for Division 2 on Feb. 6. "Today's lanes were synthetic so the ball was reacting a lot differently than it did at conference so there was a lot more adjusting you had to do," Kirschner said. "It made it a lot more challenging." Leskovska was also pleased and happy. "That's the highest I've bowled," she said. "Some of the lanes had weird approaches. The oil was different from the practice session. I didn't expect to qualify. I thought 505 was nothing but apparently it's getting me places. I'm really happy." Contact Paul Heyse at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com. BOYS TEAM STANDINGS (TOP THREE ADVANCE TO STRUTHERS DISTRICT ON FEB. 25): 1. Lutheran West 3,955; 2. Triway 3,824; 3. Clearview 3,736; 4. Firelands 3,589; 5. St. Vincent-St. Mary 3,425; 6. Brookside 3,311; 7. Keystone 3,281; 8. Open Door 3,158; 9. Wellington 3,099; 10. Fairview 2,873; 11. Elyria Catholic 2,740; 12. Black River 2,721; 13. Columbia 2,369 Individual district qualifiers: 1, Brandon Rutkowski (Wellington), 652; 2. Michael Bilczo (Brookside), 635; 3. Connor Cordy (Firelands), 583 High series: 1. Josh Maslanich (Lutheran West), 675; 2. Rutkowski, 652; 3. Bilczo, 635. Other top local bowlers: 5. Cordy, 583; 8. Drew Johnson (Open Door), 571; 9. Patrick Robles (Clearview), 562; 10. Drew Staller (Clearview), 556; 14. Tyler Mullins (Firelands), 547; 15. Jeremiah Bowens (Clearview), 541; 18. Mason Clapp (Brookside), 539; 19. Ryan Seaburn (Clearview), 515; 21. Thomas Ulrich (Firelands), 503; 24. Mike Smith (Firelands), 490; 25. Eli Ross (Keystone), 487; 25. Ryan Graves (Black River), 487; 28. Blake Hopkins (Open Door), 482; 29. Landon Davison (Wellington), 476; 30. Anthony Rodriguez (Clearview), 474 High game: 1. Rutkowski, 264; 2. Maslanich, 248; 3. Owen Fiesler (Triway), 245. Other top local bowlers: Robles, 219; Johnson, 215; Bilczo, 214; Mullins, 213; Ross, 208; Staller, 200; Cordy, 199; Ulrich, 190; Seaburn, 189; Hopkins, 184; Graves, 182 GIRLS TEAM STANDINGS (TOP THREE ADVANCE TO STRUTHERS DISTRICT ON FEB. 26): 1. Triway 3,816; 2. Open Door 3,070; 3. Brookside 3,059; 4. Firelands 2,998 (61 pins behind); 5. Wellington 2,962; 6. Keystone 2,947; 7. Coventry 2,823; 8. Fairview 2,633; 9. St. Vincent-St. Mary 2,628; 10. Black River 2,590; 11. Lutheran West 2,518; 12. Elyria Catholic 2,363; 13. Columbia 2,044 Individual district qualifiers: 1. Mandy DeWitt (Firelands), 539; 2. Whitney Kirschner (Wellington), 522; 3. Lesi Leskovska (Firelands), 505 High series: 1, Emma Yoder (Triway), 682; 2. Addy Meshew (Triway), 646; 3. DeWitt, 539. Other top local bowlers: 5. Kirschner, 522; 6. Saige Green (Brookside), 516; 7. Allison Skalba (Open Door), 514; 8. Leskovska, 505; 10. Gabriella Riba (Open Door), 504; 12. Madison Taraschke (Keystone), 487; 13. Anna Koglman (Open Door), 486; 14. Payton Clapp (Brookside), 484; 15. Ginny Reaser (Keystone), 483; 16. Irene Norton-Miller (Keystone), 472; 17. Trinity Farr (Wellington), 466; 18. Heather Reininger (Wellington), 461; 22. Gaby Salkowitz (Clearview), 434; 23. Abby Davis (Brookside), 432; 25. Amanda Mycek (Black River), 429; 28. Rhianna Falk (Black River), 412; 29. Phoenix Navarro (Clearview), 410; 30. Alyssa Ortiz (Elyria Catholic), 404High game: 1. Meshew, 264; 2. Yoder, 245; 3. DeWitt, 214. Other top local bowlers: Kirschner, 197; Skalba, 197; Green, 189; Reininger, 187; Riba, 186; Taraschke, 182; Koglman, 178; Norton-Miller, 177; Leskovska, 176; Aubrey West (Firelands), 173; Clapp, 172; Farr, 169; Reaser, 164; Mycek, 164