SMYRNA, Tenn. — Bradley Central junior Coty Rymer finished fourth in the TSSAA Division I boys’ individual bowling tournament and Walker Valley senior Samantha Pope wound up sixth among the girls Friday, and Soddy-Daisy’s boys quickly became the only Chattanooga-area team left in the 2011 competition.
The Trojans defeated Bartlett 16-11 and set up a rematch of last year’s Division I final against defending champion Wilson Central in the semifinals at 10 EST this morning at the Smyrna Bowling Center. Wilson Central (22-1) knocked down 3,474 pins in downing Dobyns-Bennett 20.5-6.5, while Soddy-Daisy (21-1) totaled 3,483 in its three games of six-on-six competition.
The other Division I boys’ semifinal pits Hardin County, a 23-4 victor over Cherokee High, against Smyrna High, which beat York Institute 18-9. The pin total for Hardin (22-2) was 3,732; it was 3,505 for Smyrna (19-1).
The four semifinalists are the ones predicted by Soddy-Daisy’s top bowlers after their sectional victory Monday, and all four teams had their best scores in their third games as they got used to the lanes Friday afternoon.
Two Soddy-Daisy seniors bowled under 140 in game one, but the Trojans won 5-3 as Andy Holden won by 108 pins with a 256 and Allyn Pickett added a 215. Joseph Leffew rolled a 236 and a 258 in his second and third games, winning by 111 in the latter, and two-time state Mr. Bowling Matt Lyon was steady throughout with a 186, a 196, a 203 and three close matchup wins.
Reserve Jeremy Hood recorded a 211 but lost in game three, when the Trojans pulled out another 5-3 win after losing by that score in game two. They earned the decisive three bonus points by a 102-pin margin for the match.
There will be a new Division II boys’ champion as McCallie, gutted by 2010 graduation, lost 22-5 to Donelson Christian Academy in a quarterfinal matching last year’s finalists. GPS and Baylor both lost in Division II girls’ quarterfinals, GPS’s Bruisers falling 16-11 to five-time champion St. Benedict and the Lady Red Raiders losing 21-6 to Pope John Paul II.
Individually, Rymer went into the six-man finals in first place, but his final total of 2,837 points trailed Cane Ridge freshman Aaron Ruiz’s 2,968, Lawrence County sophomore Dylan Woods’ 2,913 and Memphis Overton’s DeAndre McKinley’s 2,902.
Maryville Heritage senior Brittney Endsley won with a 2,705 total in the D-I girls’ competition, where Pope wound up at 2,395. Juniors Casey Pope from Battle Ground Academy and Miranda Mott from Ensworth were the Division II individual champions.