Indians’ season ends at district

ROSSVILLE, Ohio — The Indians arrived at district hunting for their first state berth, but they fell just two spots short.

The Fort Recovery High School boys bowling team fell 65 pins short of a state berth as it finished fifth at the OHSAA Division II District tournament at Interstate Lanes on Friday.

The top three teams advance to the state finals held at H. P. Lanes in Columbus, Ohio on March 8 and 9. Coldwater, Ottawa-Glandorf and Liberty Center claimed the top three spots with 4,380, 4,127 and 4,094 pins respectively. Napoleon finished just four pins ahead of the Indians, who totaled 4,029.

The top three individuals not on advancing teams also make the cut to compete at state.

Lucas Acheson finished as Fort Recovery’s top bowler, but missed that mark by eight spots. He rolled games of 236, 206 and 172 pins to claim the 20th overall placement, the ninth not on an advancing team.

Xavier Kitzmiller of Minster, Spencer Anglemyer of Kenton and Hayden Lewis of Edison moved on as they totaled 666, 660 and 653 pins respectively.

Owen Knapke and Nate Jutte both finished within four pins of Acheson. Knapke’s total pinfall of 609 earned 22nd overall, while Jutte finished 24th with 607.

Austin Steinbrunner started strong with the Indians’ highest game of the tournament at 240 pins, but struggled after, finishing with 570 and 38th place.

Even Keller threw the first game of the final individual spot. He knocked over 171 pins.

Riley Grieshop got the second and third game, throwing a 183 and 201 respectively.

To go with the 2,952 pins from individual games, the Indians tallied 1,077 pins from the six baker games. Fort Recovery had a high game of 202 in the fourth and a low of 169 in the sixth.