On a cold and rainy Saturday morning, bowlers from Seymour, Columbus, South Ripley, Madison and Switzerland County competed at Striker’s Bowling Center in Vevay to bowl for the SEIC conference championship.

Going into the day for the varsity boys, Columbus and Seymour were tied for first with South Ripley nipping at their heels.

The teams battled it out for four hours of bowling in two different formats.

The first of which was team-oriented. Five bowlers per team, each bowler going two frames within a game. This match put the two top teams against each other, which were Seymour and Columbus.

It was neck and neck, and when the dust settled and the bowlers were showing signs of putting it all on the line, Seymour came out on top, putting them in first place with Columbus tied with South Ripley for second.

In the final round, it was South Ripley versus Seymour. All five bowlers from each team would bowl two full games in singles competition.

Throughout the game, bowlers were looking at each other’s scores, calculating who is up and who is down, watching for that critical mistake by the other team and focusing on the clutch shot for themselves.

The first game came down to the tenth frame. A critical missed shot by Seymour gave South Ripley the win by two pins.

Seymour regrouped, reassured each other they can do it and began the second game. South Ripley shot well and forced Seymour with a monumental task. The last bowler needed a strike with his first shot to have a chance to win outright. The pins did not cooperate and a spare was made.

This forced a nail-biting moment. For the final shot of the championship, Seymour needed nine pins to tie and a strike to win.

South Ripley won the first game 826 to 824, and Seymour won the second game 829-828. This pushed the deciding factor to be total pinfall for both games, and after it was calculated, South Ripley had 1654 while Seymour had 1653. This then put all three teams — Seymour, Columbus and South Ripley — as Co-Champions.

After the match you could hear the bowlers from both teams discussing missed shots, good shots, if they had done this if they had done that, but when it was all said and done, they knew it was a game and these high school bowlers showed dedication, teamwork and sportsmanship at a high level.

These three teams will have a three-week break to let this day all sink in before they meet again on Saturday, Jan.8, at the Columbus Bowling Center for sectionals to see who advances to regionals.