HILLSBORO — The Miami Trace High School and Washington High School bowling teams competed in the Highland Lanes First Annual Ironclad Classic tournament on Saturday, Dec. 11.
Miami Trace’s boys and girls teams won the tournament.
The Blue Lion boys team placed second. There were 10 boys teams and 10 girls teams in the baker tournament. The Washington girls team finished in fourth place.
“I feel like we all did pretty well,” Miami Trace senior Connor Collins said. “We all pulled our weight. We just bowled as a team. We all picked each other up. When somebody was bowling bad, everybody just had to pick each other up.”
“The day started out slow,” Miami Trace senior Jayden Brown said. “We were fighting for every chance we got. (As it went along) we started to get on fire. At the end, we just lit it up.”
Each team bowled eight baker games, then the top four teams went to match play.
“The boys bowled really well,” Miami Trace coach Ron Amore Sr. said. “When one of the boys was down, the other ones picked him up, which is what I’ve been preaching to them. They kind of came together as a team and as a team they bowled well. I couldn’t ask for much more.”
“Our first match play was against Court House,” Miami Trace coach Diane Amore said. “It was best two-out-of-three and (Washington) won the first match. We had to win the next two in order to advance.”
Miami Trace did that and faced the team from Lynchburg-Clay High School in the finals and won that with scores of 177 and 198.
“We’ve been battling sickness and everything else,” Diane Amore said. “We haven’t had the same girls, week by week, but, we’re still hanging in there.”
The Record-Herald spoke with two seniors from the Miami Trace girls team.
“I think it was a really good accomplishment for us,” Macie Caudill said. “For the seniors and as a team. We just did very well overall.”
“I think we really came together as a team,” Lindsey Stump said. “We cheered loud and we did the best that we could and it paid off in the end.”
“We faced off against nine different teams,” Washington boys coach Buckie Caulley said. “You qualified by bowling eight baker games and you had to finish in the top four to qualify for the semifinals. We qualified third.
“We ended up facing Western Brown, the second-highest qualifying team,” Caulley said. “At that point, it came down to three baker games. We lost our first game, 212 to 190. We won our second game, 176 to 173 and then we won the deciding game, 220 to 170, I believe.
“We didn’t know who we were going to face at first, but we looked over and there was Trace,” Caulley said. “So we moved over a set of lanes (and played them). It was a great thing to see Fayette County on lanes five and six in the finals.
“Trace has a very good team,” Caulley said. “We have a motto here at Court House right now, ‘prove ‘em wrong.’ We’re young and we’re inexperienced. There are a lot of good bowlers in the FAC (Frontier Athletic Conference). Our boys came out pumped up and ready to go. We gave it our all against Trace, there’s no doubt about it.
“The first game came down to one spare,” Caulley said. “They got it and we didn’t. It came down to the second game and I think our guys got a little tired there, after bowling all day, they were hooting and hollering and having a good time. They were excited. I’m very proud of all of them. I wouldn’t change anything, except losing to Trace. Even though I graduated from Trace, I still want to beat them.
“We play (Miami Trace) later this week (Wednesday) and on the weekend in another tournament in Columbus,” Caulley said.
