On a cool, rainy morning last Saturday, the Seymour Owls varsity bowling teams traveled to Strikers Bowling Center in Vevay for their conference matches, and the Seymour JV teams traveled to Pollards Bowl in Versailles to compete in conference competition.
The Southeastern Indiana Conference high school bowling includes varsity bowling teams representing Austin, Columbus North, Columbus East, Madison, Scottsburg/Grace Academy/Crothersville, South Ripley, Switzerland County and Seymour. The teams are made up of freshmen through seniors and first-time bowlers through seasoned veterans.
The bowlers will each bowled two games for a match. For each game, they bowled against the bowler across from them on the scoresheet in the same position. They received one point if they beat the bowler in the same position, but it also was a team event where the total pin fall was used to determine the winner of the five-point bonus for total pin fall. The goal was to win as many points as possible out of the 20 points possible. There were 10 points possible for each game.
Every pin fall mattered. Every split and every missed pin, you saw the flustered expression on their faces. But with every strike and every spare, you saw the frustration go away.
The bowlers are creative with some doing the wave when a team member strikes or saying a rhythmic chant when they spare or strike, while others will do little dances and some will have a look of pure amazement and joy when they strike.
The Seymour boys varsity bowled against Madison in match one and South Ripley in match two. The Owls won three of 20 in match one and 18 of 20 in match two for a total 21 of 40 overall.
The boys have 66 bowlers in the varsity division. Seymour has nine bowlers in this division.
Joey Larison was fourth with 182 average, followed by eighth place Wyatt McKinney 163 average, 10th Dillan Cooper 159, 12th Cohl Moore 154, 13th Alex Sturgill 151 and 17th Enrique Morales 140. Other bowlers are Chase Burke, Cory Otero and Gary Lee.
The Seymour girls varsity bowled Columbus North in match one and Switzerland County in match two. The Owls won 12 of 20 in match one and nine of 20 in match two for a total of 21 of 40 overall.
The Seymour girls team is in first place for the conference. The girls have 37 bowlers in the varsity division. Seymour has seven bowlers in this division.
In the overall standings, third place Kaylee Patton 155, sixth place Kylee Cooper 131, seventh place Erika Corya 126, followed by Mallorie Misamore, Hailey Burke, Haley Anderson and Serenity Lacey.
For JV competition, the SEIC JV bowling teams are representing Austin, Columbus North, Columbus East, Madison, Scottsburg/Grace Academy/Crothersville, South Ripley, Switzerland County and Seymour.
The JV division is a way for young and new bowlers to get experience prior to bowling for their high school. Bowlers are from seventh grade through seniors in high school. Sixth-graders also can be a part of the team as well as students from schools that do not have a bowling program. The teams can be all boys, all girls or coed.
The Seymour boys No. 1 team bowled against Switzerland County in match one and Austin in match two. Seymour won 18 of 20 in match one and 19 of 20 in match two for a total 37 of 40 overall. They are in second place out of eight teams that bowl.
The Seymour No. 2 team bowled against Austin in match one and Switzerland County in match two. The Owls won 10 of 20 in match one and 18 of 20 in match two for a total of 28 of 40 overall. They are in third place.
The boys have 61 bowlers in the division. Seymour has 12 bowlers.
Oliver Lanam leads the JV boys with a 191 average. Fourth is Alex Sturgill 152, sixth Wyatt McKinney 142, eighth Carter Murphy 136, 11th Chase Burke 131, 16th Gary Lee 123, 22nd Dakota Cooper 115 and 23rd Cory Otero 115. Other bowlers between 25th and 40th are Drew Knutson, Abram Goldsberry, Jaedan England and Brandon Van Doren.
The girls have 26 bowlers in the division. Seymour has five bowlers.
Erika Corya is in second place with a 131 average. Fourth Hailey Burke 118, sixth Mallorie Misamore 106, 12th Haley Anderson 91 and 15th Serenity Lacey 86.
This Saturday, the varsity bowlers will be in Lawrenceburg with the boys competing against Austin and Scottsburg, while the girls will bowl against Madison and Austin.
The JV bowlers for Seymour are off this weekend before returning to competition Nov. 19 in Greensburg.
If anyone would like information about the Seymour bowling program or would like to support the bowlers, contact Eduard Sides at [email protected].
