Bridges, Carr top GCHS scores at GPIT
Story Credit: Brett Marshall/GCHS Athletics
The Great Plains Invitational Tournament brings together most of the top bowling teams into one site for a big two-day tournament at Bowlero-Northrock Lanes in Wichita.
The site of the annual state bowling tournaments always provides an opportunity for bowlers to experience the big facility with state only a few weeks down the road.
The Garden City High School girls’ and boys’ teams competed separately on Friday and Saturday with the Lady Buffs finishing 12th among 32 competing teams. The Buffs’ boys’ team, meanwhile, finished near the middle of the pack of 32 teams in 17th place.
The marathon day of competition saw the teams on their respective days bowl the traditional American 10-Pin, three-game series, only this time counting five total scores of the three games as opposed to the best four of six (or five) scores for each game.
Then, the teams bowled 12 games in the Baker format which requires teams to put together a sequence of bowlers where no one bowler rolls two frames consecutively.
Once those 15 games are completed and pin counts totaled, the top eight teams advance into match play where teams compete in Baker in a best 2-of-3 format.
In the girls’ division, Topeka-Washburn Rural knocked off the top seeded Campus Colts for the championship while on the boys’ side it was Wichita Northwest coming away with the title over Washburn Rural.
The Lady Buffs were led in the American 10-Pin format by senior Chloe Carr and junior Morgan Schwaderer, who were close together in 38th and 39th individually among the 181 bowlers.
Carr was two pins ahead of Schwaderer at 495 on games of 152-160-183 while Schwader rolled games of 157-186-150 for a 493 total.
Other team members included Savannah Mastin at 432 (127-132-173), Sophie Cornish with a 407 (169-110-128) and Emma McDowell at 310 (101-96-113) for a team total of 2,137 pins.
In the Baker format, the girls rolled games of 145-129-203-150-147-184-135-129-113-144-129-109 for 1,717 and a combined pin count of 3,874. Campus won that portion with a total of 5,395.
For the Buffs’ boys’ squad, it was the 1-2 punch of junior Derek Bridges and sophomore Brody Nichols that carried the team in the American 10-Pin format.
Bridges, the top bowler in the Western Athletic Conference through nearly half of the dual match schedule, rolled a total of 661 on games of 222-235-204. That also placed him in 15th place individually. Nichols had games of 211-164-220 for 595 and 52nd place among the 188 bowlers.
Rounding out the team individual scores were Jayden Smith at 452 (125-183-144), Jordan Mier (193-191-149) for a 533 and Kyler Farm at 493 on games of 222-120-151. That totaled 2,734 pins.
In the Baker format, the Buffs shot games of 170-183-199-163-187-167-197-191-248-152-204-145 for a total of 2,206 pins. The total pin count for the two formats was 4,940. Derby won that portion with a combined pin count of 6,151.
Will Winkelbauer of Maize South was the individual champion with a 768 series on games of 243-260-265. The champion in the girls’ division was Riley Emerson of Campus with a 775 on games of 279-248-248.
The Buffs will return to Western Athletic Conference dual competition on Thursday when they travel to Liberal to face the Redskins/Lady Red at 1 p.m. at Ayr Lanes.
