Bentonville Sweeps Conference Bowling Team Titles

— The Bentonville boys bowling team was pushed much harder than their female counterparts, but both came away from the 7A/6A-West Conference tournament as champions Thursday.

Prep Bowling

7A/6A-West Tournament

At Fast Lane Entertainment, Lowell

Boys

Team Scores

(Top 5 advance to state)

1, Bentonville 4,308. 2, Fayetteville 4,242. 3, Springdale Har-Ber 4,239. 4, Van Buren 4,195. 5, Mountain Home 4,025. 6, Greenwood 3,921. 7, Rogers Heritage 3,651. 8, Siloam Springs 3,771. 9, Rogers High 3,797. 10, Springdale High 3,391. 11, Fort Smith Southside 3,407. 12, Fort Smith Northside 1,752.

Individuals

1, Bryant Ezell, Fayetteville 692.

2, Dylan Eichler, Bentonville 691.

3, Austin Shryock, Van Buren 662.

4, Joey Hedrick, Mountain Home 646.

5, Brandon Smallwood, Rogers High 631.

Other Area State Individual Qualifiers

Alex Cameron, Siloam Springs, Levi Burr, Rogers Heritage.

Girls

Team Scores

(Top 5 advance to state)

1, Bentonville 3,515. 2, Mountain Home 3,220. 3, Greenwood 3,145. 4, Rogers High 3,094. 5, Springdale High 3,029. 6, Van Buren 2,891. 7, Fayetteville 2,806. 8, Springdale Har-Ber 2,787. 9, Rogers Heritage 2,632. 10, Siloam Springs 2,567. 11, Fort Smith Southside 2,343. 12, Fort Smith Northside 1,604.

Individuals

1, Haley Williams, Rogers High 635.

2, Kassidy Stanton, Bentonville 546.

3, Lacy Leavell, Greenwood 542.

4, Abby Molenhouse, Mountain Home 520.

5, Lainey Lopez, Bentonville 517

Other Area State Individual Qualifiers

Lisa Scaggs, Springdale Har-Ber, Kendra Mortimeyer, Rogers Heritage; Maggie Stehlik, Fayetteville, Bailey Bollinger, Siloam Springs, Deanna Rudosill, Fayetteville.

The Tigers finished with two strong baker games to claim their second consecutive conference title at Fast Lane Entertainment.

Midway through the four baker games, a format in which the five team members alternate bowling each frame, Springdale Har-Ber had pulled into a 15-pin lead. But Bentonville surged to victory and Fayetteville nipped Har-Ber by three pins for second.

Bentonville coach Kyle Smith said his team has a history of blowing leads in the baker games, but he was proud of his team’s effort to finish strong.

“If we’re going to lose a lead, it’s going to be in baker, but everybody picked it up at the end,” Smith said.

The individual competition on the boys side was also tough as Fayetteville’s Bryant Ezell edged Dylan Eichler of Bentonville by one pin, 692-691.

Ezell, who won the conference title for second consecutive year, said he performed pretty well but got a couple of bad breaks that cost him a possible higher score. He started with a 220 and finished with back-to-back 236 scores.

“I had a 7-10 split in the first game, and I know had one, maybe two 7-10s in the second game and I missed an easy spare,” Ezell said. “But I started the third game with five straight strikes.

“Overall, nothing to complain about. But if a couple things go my way, it could have been better.”

Eichler said lane conditions changed after he opened with a 266 but slipped to 223 and 202 in the final two games

“I made the right ball change, just a little too late,” Eichler said.

The Lady Tigers were in control most of the way buoyed by the tandem of Kassidy Stanton and Lainey Lopez, who finished second and fifth individually. Bentonville finished almost 300 pins ahead of second-place Mountain Home.

Haley Williams of Rogers High couldn’t keep up a red-hot start but easily won the girls’ individual title with a 635 series. The two-time state runnerup started with a 235 and 214 but slipped to 186 in the third. It was still good enough to outdistance Stanton’s 546.

The top five teams and top six individuals not on a qualifying team advance to the Class 7A/6A state tournament Monday at Bowling World in Fort Smith.

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