Indians get 11th

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Indians had several question marks after losing five of their top seven bowlers and then dropping the season opener to Memorial Roughriders.

A few more hiccups left them with a 6-9 record and a fourth-place finish in the Midwest Athletic Conference.

But when the tournament rolled around, the Tribe found their rhythm and no matter the final result, it could only be happy with its first state appearance in program history.

The Fort Recovery High School bowling team made its way to H.P. Lanes in Columbus on Saturday and knocked down 3,842 pins to finish 11th at the OHSAA Division II State Bowling Tournament.

While the Indians’ didn’t advance to bracket play — teams have five bowlers throw three individual games and then five Baker games and the top eight scores make a bracket with best-of-five Baker series — they were happy to be making their first state appearance since creating the team nine years ago.

“First time in school history, I’m proud of it,” said acting coach Lucas Acheson, who graduated last year and won MAC player of the year. “When we began the season we weren’t really projected to do it, so no one’s crying here today. We’re all happy we made it.”

FRHS finished 78 pins behind Washington (3,920) for the last spot in the final. The seventh-seeded Benjamin Logan, which only had 130 more pins than the Tribe, won the state title. It beat the No. 2 seed Mechanicsburg, third-seeded Northwestern and the No. 4 Marion Pleasant in the championship match.

The Tribe put up some solid scores, but there was always a rotating spot in the lineup that dragged the average down. In the individual games, Fort Recovery consistently had four bowlers with 170 or more pins, including three that would eclipse 190.

Then during Baker play, despite averaging over five strikes a game, the Indians consistently left two frames open to nerf their scores. Their lowest game was a 171 in the fourth game, leaving three frames open and only getting strikes from Garrett Diller in the seventh and three from Reece LeFevre in the 10th.

“At the beginning of the day, if you told us we were gonna average 192 and not make the cut I’d say, ‘Well, not much you can do,’” Lucas Acheson said. “We bowled pretty good, but it came down to who were the better teams. We’ll get better and next year is always next year. … Today we always had four good bowlers and needed five. Our 140s and 150s weren’t cutting it and never will.”

Gabe Acheson, Lucas’ younger brother, had a strong performance. The FRHS junior smashed his career-best series of 604 pins that he bowled at the district meet by rolling games of 234, 202 and 225 for a 661. He tied with Cooper Backney of Northwestern for the 18th place in the individual games. (He was 13 pins away from the All-Ohio honorable mention list, as Wade Allen of Coventry rolled a 674 for 15th.)

“During practice yesterday, I found that I really need to keep my speed down, because I get in my head real easily,” Gabe Acheson said. “You saw that at the start of the third game, when I opened the first  three games. I just got to keep my cool.”

He was referencing the final individual game, in which he started with three opens on a 3-9-10 split, a 7-10 split and a 1-2-4-10 leave. Rather than letting the tough start rattle him, Gabe Acheson bounced back to rattle off seven consecutive strikes and a 6-10 spare to earn a 225.

His first and second games were much cleaner, only leaving one open in each. The Indian also started the first game with a six-bagger before a 2-4-8 split brought it to a halt. In total, he threw 26 strikes, knocking all 10 pins down 60.5% of the time.

LeFevre also got off to a hot start for the Tribe. The first-year bowler started the day with a hambone ­­(four consecutive strikes) before a pair of opens. He finished the first game with a spare and three more strikes for a 222. His second game dipped slightly for 196 pins and he finished with 227. The junior’s 645-pin series was good for 26th in the state.

LeFevre was the cleanest Indian at state, filling 90% (36-40) of his frames.

“This pattern demanded a lot of (revolutions),” LeFevre said. “Being a two-handed bowler, it’s a lot easier to get more revs. I just figured out the pattern early and moved as I needed to.”

Diller was the only other Indian to bowl all three individual games. He shot games of  172,194 and 176 for 71st-best series.

Riley Grieshop started strong with a 225, before struggling with opens late in the second game, resulting in a 148. Anthony Roessner started the third game before Grieshop finished it off for a 138.

A.J. Seifring started in the first game, but Eli Lennartz got subbed in during the seventh frame. The two combined for 132 pins. Leland Wilson took the spot in the lineup for games two and three, throwing 192 and 191.

The Indians sat 61 pins out of the cut after the individual games. While Baker games of 203, 189, 199, 171 and 206 didn’t slip them down in the standings, the scores weren’t enough to make up the difference.

Lennartz and Grieshop are the only Indians set to graduate, leaving the Tribe excited for what the future can hold.

“We showed that, if we actually take this seriously like we did the second half of the year, we can make a good run next year,” Gabe Acheson said.