FRHS girls bowling looking to make top 8

The Indians and Tigers have developed a rivalry over the past two seasons.

In the 2023-24 regular season, the Indians claimed the regular season matchup before the Tigers got revenge in the Midwest Athletic Conference tournament.

The Tigers also got the better of the Tribe at the state meet that year, finishing four spots higher.

The Indians repeated the regular season result this year, but once again couldn’t take down the Tigers in the MAC tournament.

The Tribe toppled the Tigers on Feb. 11 to earn its first sectional title.

They had a chance to do the same at the district, but they couldn’t beat the cats, falling by less than 30 pins.

But luckily for the Indians, they have earned themselves another chance to be victorious against Versailles.

The Fort Recovery High School girls bowling team will travel to Columbus on Friday to compete in the OHSAA Division II State tournament at H.P. Lanes and will be looking to improve upon their ninth-place finish from last season.

The Indians earned their first state berth in 2023-24 and only graduated one bowler (Brooklyn Wyerick) from that squad, setting up a return visit in 2025. A runner-up finish in the Southwest District tournament clinched a return trip.

“It’s very exciting,” said FRHS coach Alison Rosegrant. “The thing I was the most nervous about was, this season we had expectations. Last year was exciting. We knew we were good enough to make it to state the previous years, but making it was great and now we had to live up to it again. So just really excited that the girls did what they had to do and made it back.”

Bowling will start with the qualifying round at 10:45 a.m. with three individual games and three Baker games.

The top eight teams will advance to bracket play, in which teams will bowl a best-of-five Baker games. In the 2025 tournament, the Tribe finished ninth with 3,017 pins, just 13 short of the final advancing team, Rootstown.

Fort Recovery’s primary goal this time around is to finish in the top eight to give itself a chance at bracket play. The Tribe’s 3,824-pin performance at the district was the third-best mark of any team in the field, trailing only Versailles (3,849) – which won the Southwest District tournament – by 25 and the Northwest District champion Napoleon (3,844) by 20. Based off of the district scores, FRHS has a 260 pin cushion on 2024 state runner-up Mechanicsburg, which had the ninth-best performance.

Should the Indians advance to bracket play, they will shift their sights at the state title. To finish as the top team in Division II, the Tribe will likely need to go through a fellow Midwest Athletic Conference opponent in the Versailles Tigers.

The two teams have developed a friendly rivalry over the past two seasons. This year, the teams have traded success, as the Indians came out on top during the regular season and in the sectional, while Versailles won in the MAC tournament and the district. Should that pattern keep up, it would set Fort Recovery up to take down the Tigers.

“(Versailles coach Tyler Philipot) and I were talking at districts that we’d love to see two MAC teams make it to the top,” Rosegrant said. “As much as we want to beat Versailles, we also cheer them on and want to see them succeed. So if it can be us top two at the end that would be fantastic. … It would feel pretty darn good (to beat Versailles). I think these girls deserve it.”

Along with Versailles – the Tigers finished sixth in the bracket play last season – five more teams that finished in the top eight will return to state. Mechanicsburg was the runner-up and Napoleon finished fifth. Memorial placed third a season ago and is slated to finish in the top eight again with the fifth best district performance.

A year of experience will give the Indians an advantage as they won’t be as blinded by the luster of making it to state.

“Last year, we were just excited to be there,” said senior Emily Lauber. “(This year) we need to figure out where we’re standing and our marks as soon as possible. Then we just have to stay motivated and stay pumped and (we’ll place higher than we did last year).”

Joining Lauber at state will be seniors Ella Schoen, Kayla Heitkamp and Saidy DeRoo, sophomore Deanna Brown and freshmen Lilah Thien, Jayden Wyerick and Maddie Weigel.

Thien and Schoen both made the first team all-district, finishing sixth and eight respectively. Brown and Lauber each bowled in all three individual games while Heitkamp started in game No. 1 before Wyerick handled the second and third. DeRoo also saw district action, filling the second spot in the lineup during the first three Baker games.

Both Rosegrant and Lauber mentioned winning the mental game will be a key for the Indians to achieve their state aspirations. Should Fort Recovery not beat itself mentally, the Tribe feels good about its chance to achieve some of its state goals.

“We just have to be there for each other,” Lauber said. “I know when I’m bowling and I start to struggle, I need to know how to pull myself out … and just stay positive. We’re all great together. We all stick together the whole time and just have fun and our laughs.”