Tribe claims its first sectional

DAYTON, Ohio — The Indians couldn’t take down the Tigers to claim the sole rights to the Midwest Athletic Conference title.

One week later, they topped the Tigers and 24 other teams to secure a spot at the district and their first sectional title.

The Fort Recovery High School girls bowling team kept just enough distance from MAC-rival Versailles and Graham Local to claim their first OHSAA Division II Southwest Sectional title on Tuesday at Rollhouse Dayton.

The Indians wracked up 3,813 pins to claim their first sectional title in girls bowling. Graham Local finished as the runner-up with 3,724, while VHS only managed third place with 3,693 pins.

The top 12 teams and individuals not on advancing teams move on to the district tournament on Feb. 19 at Beaver-Vu Lanes in Beavercreek, Ohio. Ansonia was the final team to make the cut with a team total of 2,899. The other teams to earn district berths were Urbana, Greenon, Northwestern, Kenton Ridge, Benjamin Logan, Fort Loramie, West Liberty-Salem and Southeastern Local.

FRHS freshman Lilah Thien put together the strongest day for the Indians in the individual games. She finished with a 597 series to earn second place behind Graham Local’s Kailey Dowty. Thien started off strong with a 221-pin game before taking a slight dip to 175 and bouncing back for a 201.

Two more Indians rolled 220s, as Emily Lauber put up the team high of 227 in her final game and Deanna Brown shot a 225 to open the day. Lauber finished with a 578 series for eighth place, while Brown’s 563 left her 10th on the leaderboard.

Ella Schoen never shot below 175 – her high was 190 in the second game – to claim the 12th-best series in the sectional.

Kayla Heitkamp had the slowest day of the Indians, shooting 163, 174 and  176, but still finished 19th at the sectional and would be moving on as an individual had the team not made it through.

The Indians coupled their individual success with a strong showing during the baker games. In total, they knocked down 1,007 pins, only outdone Kenton Ridge with 1,040. Fort Recovery put up its best game of 215 in the final game.