Eight teams and eight individuals will represent central Ohio in the Division I state bowling tournaments Friday and Saturday at HP Lanes, and there is a decided contrast in their stories.
Two of the four area boys teams, Big Walnut and Hilliard Davidson , are at state for the second time – and the second year in a row. The other two, Gahanna Lincoln and Jonathan Alder, have combined for 11 appearances.
Gahanna is the veteran program on the girls side, although its three-year string of district titles was snapped Feb. 27 at HP Lanes. The 2018, 2020 and 2021 state champion Lions have advanced to the season's final event for the fifth consecutive year, but the other three Central District qualifiers – Hilliard Bradley, London and Newark – have advanced as teams for the first time.
The boys compete Friday, followed by the girls Saturday.
Here are five storylines entering the state tournament :
With a chance to win the school's first girls team championship, the Red Raiders are set to finish a season they never saw coming.
London has been through three coaches, the first two having left for personal reasons, and despite a 9-14 regular-season record reached its first district tournament. The Red Raiders finished third (3,395) to Newark (3,674) and Gahanna (3,537) and just ahead of Bradley (3,359), thanks in large part to freshman Abbie Wheeler's fifth-place series of 591.
Seniors Riley Colestock and Lauren Peters and freshman Breanna Baldwin comprised the rest of the district lineup. Peters will bowl at Ohio Northern and Colestock, whose father is coach Ed Colestock, will run cross country and track at The Citadel.
Wheeler bowled a program-record 267 game Feb. 12 against New Carlisle Tecumseh.
"The joke is, just get away from the conference and go to district," Ed Colestock, who took over in January, said of a Central Buckeye Conference that also includes Jonathan Alder, Division II champion Springfield Kenton Ridge and state qualifiers St. Paris Graham and Urbana. "All season long, this group just kept doing special things.
"We were knocking on the door to get to district for three years or so. The goal was to get out of sectional as a team, and we ended up doing this."
With senior and two-time reigning district champion Aidan Furukawa and classmate Nick Green atop the lineup, the Golden Eagles edged Jonathan Alder by six pins (4,138-4,132) to capture the district title.
Furukawa bowled a 743 series at district. He was fourth in the Central Ohio High School Bowling Conference in average (214.7) during the regular season, two spots behind Green (224.7).
Senior Garrett Irvine and juniors Dominic Bolton and Tino Tucci have been the other regulars.
"All season, it was just consistency, consistency," coach Conner Leidtke said. "Big games and a lot of strikes win a lot of titles. Hitting your marks, making all your spares, that's what really won it in the end.
"Aidan and Nick are the cornerstones, but everybody who bowls has pulled us through."
Jonathan Alder is led by junior and 2023 state runner-up Drew Damron, who was second to Furukawa at district by 15 pins and averaged 225 during the regular season.
Junior Brayden Anderson (12th, 638) and sophomore Will Gray (13th, 635) led Gahanna to third (4,113) at district. Senior Maxwell Stith was fifth in the COHSBC in average (214.5).
Davidson (fourth, 4,088) has largely the same cast as last year's team that finished third at state. Senior Caelan Guthrie was third at district (676) and averaged 207.5 in league play.
Newark senior Jade Gabor is coming off a 68-pin victory at district, 684-616 over Licking Valley senior Olivia Strait, but the Wildcats' first district team title meant Gabor – who was 29th at state last year, 73rd as a sophomore and had the highest district series statewide – did not take an individual berth.
Those went to Strait, Jonathan Alder senior Daisy Henderson (fourth at district, 597), Pickerington Central junior Emma Pugh (fourth, 582) and Worthington Kilbourne senior Amber Brockway (seventh, 559).
Strait was Division II district champion in 2022 and placed 31st at state.
Henderson was 32nd while competing with her team a season ago. Pugh led Central to state in 2022 and tied for 49th.
Brockway is making her state debut and will bowl in her team's home facility.
"I felt like I wanted to do a little bit better (at district), but I've still had an amazing year," Brockway said. "I've taught myself to slow myself down and focus more on the basics. Sometimes I feel when I'm stressed and frazzled, (basics) are the things that tend to suffer. I just try to focus on my things that make me good."
The district's four individual qualifiers finished fourth through seventh at district, led by North senior Baylee Becker (fourth, 672).
He was followed closely by Hilliard Darby sophomore Isaac Fellner (fifth, 669), Reynoldsburg sophomore Quinn Dean (sixth, 663) and Jackson freshman Blake Woodyard (seventh, 661). All are making their state debuts.
"It's about just getting locked in and having a good mindset, not getting down and getting in my head early," said Becker, whose team finished fifth. "(State) will be different. I'll be by myself. It will be fun, but it will be different."
Defending girls team champion Macedonia Nordonia brings the highest team-qualifying score to state, having rolled a 3,879 to win the Northeast District and earn its second all-time state berth.
Gabor's 684 at district was the highest among all individuals statewide by nine pins. Huber Heights Wayne's Laila Lambert rolled a 675 in the Southwest District tournament, in which defending individual champion Danica Roseberry of Kettering Fairmont finished 38th (528).
Last year's boys team champion, Beavercreek, returns with defending individual champion Carson Shroyer.
Northeast champion New Philadelphia (4,415) was the highest-scoring boys team in the district round.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus high school bowling notes for OHSAA D-I state tournament
