High school bowling: Vermilion girls qualify to districts

Bella Phillips bowled a 596 series to help the Vermilion girls qualify to districts for the first time since 2017 with a second-place finish at Wednesday's Division II sectional at Lanes at the Harbor in Port Clinton. Phillips,a sophomore and district qualifier in singles last year, rebounded nicely from a slow start to record the top series. Phillips opened with a 149 before rolling a 240 and a 207 to top Perkins sophomore Olivia Lizzi, who had a 576 (166-155-255) and Eastwood senior Cassi Kieper, who had a 554 (163-167-224). Defending sectional singles champ Gracie Webster, a sophomore from Seneca East, finished 31st with a 404 (140-154-110). Vermilion scored 3,247 to finish behind Perkins (3,296), last year's runner-up by two pins. Defending champ Eastwood (3,160) and Willard (3,052) were the other team qualifiers to the Northwest district set for Feb. 22 at Interstate Lanes in Rossford. "My team put in a great effort today and it paid off," Phillips said. "Our team spirits stayed up even through our tough first games. I personally had a rough start from nerves, but after I was able to settle in my game improved. Today's lanes had a challenging oil pattern that made our team performances struggle. As a result we left a good amount of makeable spares. Slowing down my approach and being sure to hit my mark each frame helped me succeed in my last two games and in the Baker." Bailey Piwinski had a 435 (130-147-158), Lydia Horrocks a 433 (157-147-129), Lia Leimbach a 424 (102-162-160) and Allison Traut a 414 (116-143-155) for the Sailors. "Throughout all of our team struggles, we were able to make the best of the day and finish our Baker games strong," Phillips said. "I'm very proud of our team for the effort we put in today and our strength to keep going after hard frames." Vermilion came up one place short of qualifying last year when only three teams were award berths, finishing fourth but 144 pins out of third. In its last district-qualifying performance in 2017, the Sailors also finished second at Port Clinton, finishing 87 pins behind Willard. The Vermilion boys finished ninth out of 10 teams at Tuesday's Division II sectional tournament at Star Lanes at the Harbor. Michael Leonardi had a 451 series to lead the Sailors, finishing 21st and 31 pins shy of a district berth. Zane Lassen was 26th with a 422. Leonardi and Lassen were the only Sailors to bowl all three regular games. Margaretta senior Grant Brake (618) rallied past Perkins senior Xander Lewis (608) in the third game to earn the high series. Contact Paul Heyse at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.