The Seymour High School boys bowling team won the SEIC and sectional championships. In front is Cohl Moore; second row from left are assistant coach Eduard Sides, Wyatt McKinney, Dillan Cooper, Alex Sturgill, Enrique Morales, Joey Larison and Chase Burke; center back row is skills coach JR Misamore and far right is head coach/SEIC coordinator Shannon Kelly.
Submitted photo
High school bowling is alive and rolling in the state of Indiana.
For the 2022-23 season, there were 193 schools that had student bowlers. There were 192 boys and coed bowling teams and 106 girls teams. For single competitors, there were 1,468 boys and 819 girls who competed.
The Southeastern Indiana Conference had the following schools represented: Austin, Columbus North, Columbus East, Madison, Scottsburg, Seymour, South Ripley and Switzerland County.
The season began Oct. 8 and ran through the conference finals Jan. 7. Following the conference finals, there are the Indiana sectionals (Jan. 14), regionals (Jan. 21), semis (Jan. 28) and state competition (Feb. 11).
This past Saturday, the SEIC sectional was held in Greensburg. The bowlers reported to the bowling center by 8 a.m., and most of them were there until 6 p.m.
The sectional was two separate events. The first event was three games for singles competitors beginning at 9 a.m. and finishing at 1:40 p.m. Prior scores and averages did not count. Everyone was competing to be one of the nine boys or girls to move on.
The schools were allowed to bring 10 bowlers for the event. In this event, anyone can move on. There have been low average bowlers that scored enough to qualify. When the event is over and as the top bowlers are announced, there were tears and screams of joy, and that was just from the parents.
For the boys, the scoring was tight. The bowlers are always told, “Make the spares, and every pin counts. Even one pin can make or break your chances.”
In the boys competition, Columbus East’s Jackson Herald was first, Columbus North’s Landon Miller was second and Seymour’s Cohl Moore was third.
The other six qualifiers to move on to the regional were Elijah Liming (South Ripley), Elijah Siegelin (Columbus East), Kaylob Loos (Madison), Jerry Long (Austin), Joseph Larison (Seymour) and Enrique Morales (Seymour).
In the girls singles competition, Alexis Jones (Columbus North) was first, followed by Ragan Mathis (North), Lillian Lacey (East), Kaylee Patton (Seymour), Tianna Hess (Switzerland County), Joycee Redman (East), Kylee Cooper (Seymour) and Erika Corya (Seymour).
Once the singles competition was over, there was about an hour break while the lanes were rerun. Then the fun began again with the team event running from 2:40 to 6 p.m.
That involved 12 Baker games, and then the top two teams in scoring would move on to regional. This year, there was a wildcard option. This team, of all of the teams for the Jasper Regional, will be the one that scores the closest to the second-place team.
The team event went back and forth between the top three teams — South Ripley, Seymour and Switzerland County.
After all was said and done, South Ripley finished first for the qualifier, and Seymour finished second with Switzerland County only 18 pins behind them. The top two teams qualified to move on to regional, but now, they had to bowl two more games to see who took the sectional championship.
The week before, Seymour won the conference championship and was looking to sweep the series against South Ripley by winning the sectional championship. Seymour won the first game by 24 pins, and the second game was even closer. It came down to the ninth and 10th frames with Moore having to mark and Larison having to close out in the 10th.
Seymour squeaked out a win by eight pins for a plus-32 total and became the sectional champion.
The Switzerland County boys received the wild card (18 pins behind Seymour), and the next nearest team was only three pins behind them.
In the girls team competition, Columbus North finished first for the qualifier, and Switzerland County finished second. Seymour was third and had to wait and see if it qualified for the wildcard.
Unfortunately for the Owls, the girls team will not be moving on, but they will be sending three bowlers in singles — Patton, Cooper and Corya.
All bowlers will now go to Eastown Recreation Center in Jasper to compete in regional competition this Saturday.
For information about the Seymour bowling programs, contact Eduard Sides at [email protected]. Middle school bowling for grades 5 to 8 begins Feb. 20.