On the first day of the Eastern Pennsylvania Regional Bowling Championships, the Lancaster-Lebanon League flexed its muscles in what turned out to be the best performance of any league in the field.
Of the 24 individuals who clinched a berth in the state championships, nearly half came from the L-L League. Seven boys and four girls made up the 11 qualifiers who will travel to Pittsburgh in two weeks for the state championships.
The individual championships finished Friday at Berks Lanes and included over 300 bowlers from seven leagues in the Philadelphia, Reading, Allentown, York, Harrisburg and Lancaster areas. There were 189 boys who started the day qualifying at Berks Lanes and 142 girls at Bowl-O-Rama. Each bowler rolled five games resulting in a cumulative score and the top 12 bowlers in each competition were named finalists, and thus qualified for the state championships.
The top 12 bowlers were assigned seeds based on their finish in qualifying, and from there the tournament continued with a bracket-style championship.
Becky Gerhart of Manheim Township led L-L League participants as a runner-up in the girls' competition. Gerhart, the No. 2 seed, lost to No. 1 seed Charlotte Sheipe of Conrad Weiser, 211-174.
"My only goal today was to qualify for states," Gerhart said. "Once I got to the finals I just wanted to have fun and do my best. I accomplished that and now I'll keep working toward the state championships in Pittsburgh."
This will be the senior's third trip to states. Gerhart finished 17th her sophomore year and second last year.
"My goal is to make the first cut and hopefully finish in the top five," Gerhart said. "Being there before is a plus because I know what to expect at states. It's a different competition and I have to work harder. That's all I can really do, so we'll see what happens when I'm there."
Other state qualifiers from the girls' competition include Christina Leid (Ephrata), Chelsea Erb (McCaskey) and Brianna Ord (Warwick).
On the boys' side, Garden Spot's Matt Detrick was the only L-L bowler in the semifinals before he bowed to the No. 1 seed, Nick Schmidt, 209-156.
"Like a lot of bowlers today, my goal was to qualify for states," Detrick said. "I accomplished that and anything after that I was really happy about. I was surprised to get the fourth seed and have a bye, so today was a good day personally."
Detrick, a junior, will make his first trip to the state championships.
"I'm excited for it," Detrick said. "It will be a new experience and I just hope to perform as well as I can when I'm out there."
Other state qualifiers from the boys' competition include Sean Obetz (Lampeter-Strasburg), Isaac Kim (Cedar Crest), Austin Kissinger (Warwick), Danny Secord (Elizabethtown), Bryan Snyder (Penn Manor) and Coty Johnson (Penn Manor).
The top five finishers in the qualifying round of each competition were named Regional All-Stars. Obetz (1,045) placed third, Detrick (1,021) fourth and Kissinger (1,003) fifth. The girls' Regional All-Stars included Gerhart (1,037, second) and Leid (1,007, fifth).
Obetz was also honored for bowling the high game of the boys' competition, rolling 267 in the third game of his qualifying round.
The day's drama came from the boys' championship game, where Cardinal O'Hara's Ed Thomas defeated Schmidt in a roll-off. Schmidt missed a single-pin opportunity for a spare that would have clinched the championship, instead leaving the door open for Thomas in the 10th frame. Thomas needed and nailed three strikes in the final frame to tie Schmidt at 174.
A two-frame roll-off would determine the regional champion, and Thomas completed his comeback, winning the roll-off, 50-39.
Team championships are on tap today at 9 a.m. The boys' qualifying will take place at Berks Lanes while the girls qualify at Bowl-O-Rama. The finals for both competitions be at Bowl-O-Rama at 4 p.m. where the top six teams in each competition will earn a trip to the state championships.