Area individual state qualifiers
Division I boys — Jack Freeman (Chattanooga Christian); Hunter Patterson, Ryley Phillips (Cumberland County); Zach Price (McMinn County); Phillip Rogers (Rhea County); Seth Majic, Adam Siegel (Signal Mountain); Austin Humes (Soddy-Daisy); Dylan Petty, Oliver Lawson, Elijah Manderson (Tullahoma); Hayden Word, Jon Womble (Walker Valley)Division I girls — Leah White (Bradley Central); Karmin Nevels (Hixson); Baylee Shipley, Millie Shadden (Rhea County); Katrina Stickel, Destiny O’Dell, Caitlyn Gann (Soddy-Daisy); Hailey Crabtree, Nicole Streeter, Cege Baxter, Tiffany Varney (Stone Memorial); Tailor Noyce (Tullahoma); Natily Haro (Walker Valley); Taylor Davis (Warren County)Division II boys — Garrett Carmichael (Baylor); Jay Moorefield, Jacob Benefield (McCallie)Division II girls — Blakely Reid, Sydney White, Cora Long, Emmie Cobb (GPS)
The Smyrna and Tullahoma high school boys’ bowling teams produced a sensational Region 4 final last week, Smyrna edging the Wildcats 14-13 with a 3,890-3,874 margin in total pinfall.
Neither got close to those pin totals Monday, but both had plenty to get past the Region 3 representatives and earn berths in the state tournament Friday at the Smyrna center where the Bulldogs beat Rhea County 19-8 in one sectional. Tullahoma topped McMinn County 21-6 at Classic Lanes in Athens.
The Wildcats (17-4) will be making the first state tournament appearance in the five-year program’s history. They lost to McMinn County in a 2015 sectional at the cozy 16-lane center.
“That was my first year,” Tullahoma coach Lamont Snipes said Monday. “They beat us by 32 pins. Most of our guys now were freshmen then.”
Snipes starts four juniors and a sophomore with senior David Farmer, who had the day’s best game – a 243 in game two – but lost two of his head-to-head contests with McMinn senior Hunter Lankford. Cherokees junior Zach Price also won two matchups, starting with a 227 in the opening game, when McMinn (14-3) lost 5-3 and trailed by 41 pins.
Although senior Mikal Pascale’s 229 in game two was McMinn’s best score of the match, it and Price’s 217 were the only highlights in a 997 game for the six-man lineup. Tullahoma rolled a 1,166, swelling its lead to a virtually insurmountable margin of 11-5 and 210 pins.
“That second game killed us,” Cherokees coach Chris Skidmore said. “We had too many open frames. We had 17 in the first game but were still close, but in the second game it caught up to us.”
Asked what his team was missing, Price said succinctly, “Spares – and focus. But we did good (this season) – we made it all way to the substate, and we’ll be back.”
Price will be in Smyrna on Thursday for the Division I individual state tournament, which also will include Tullahoma’s Dylan Petty, Oliver Lawson and Elijah Manderson. Petty had a 221.70 game average for the season.
Rhea County jumped to a 5-3 first-game lead at Smyrna, with a 127-pin advantage, as Timothy Rogers led five 200-plus scores with his 226 and the lowest was a 190, but the Eagles had only one score above 194 the rest of the way – Rogers’ 203 in game three, when his teammates’ best was a 179.
Phillip Rogers will represent Rhea in the individual state. Josh Meeke, who had a 268 in game two, qualified for Smyrna along with Justin Lee and Justin Shull – Meeke with a 226.47 average and the other two also above 204.
The Rhea County girls (23-0), Girls Preparatory School and McCallie will be in the team state.