WIAA Girls 2A/1A State Bowling: RA Long dominates, Individual Title comes down to 2 pins

2/5/2024

(Tukwila, WA) The 2024 2A/1A State Girls Bowling tournament was held at the Bowlero Lanes in Tukwila on Wednesday and Thursday. The team competition was over 2 days while individual honors were deceided on day 1.

Individual Competition

The individual State Championship was decided in the final frame of the final game of the day and it came down to a battle between best friends both Seniors for the RA Long Lumberjills.

The Jill’s Ava Rodman got off to a fast start rolling a 178 in her 1st game and a 234 in her 2nd. Rodman placed 5th last year and the 234 was the highest single game of the day until Ada Querin of West Valley Yakima tossed a 235. (For more on Ada see the 4A tournament coverage.) After 2 games Rodman tookover the lead from WF West’s Savanna Hoyt-Siler with a 412 to 376 lead. Hoyt-Siler started off with a 208 and 168.

Meantime, Rodman’s teammate and best friend Lily Mattison got off to a slowstart with a 110 in her opener, then followed up with a 173 for a 283 total. Rodaman would finish the opening round with a 169 total and 581 3-game series whole Siler-Hoyt picked up some ground with a 181 and 557 series. Mattison shot a 160 and through 3 games was sitting with 443 total pins or 138 behind Rodman.

After the lunch break this is where things get interesting. Many may say this is a case of the leader folding under pressure but they would be wrong. This is a story that will be hard to ever see again and has never been seen before at the State Bowling Tournament.

In game 4, 5 and 6 Rodman was consistent with a 170, 160 and finished strong with a 193 finishing with an 1104 total. Hoyt-Siler had a 157, 165 and 192 for a 1071 6 game series.

Meantime, Mattison began her incredible journey with a 220. After 4 games she trailed Rodman 751-663 or 88 pins behind. Mattison came right back with a 217 cutting into the margin but still trailing 911-880 or 31 pins behind. In the final game again Rodman rolled a 193 and with the 31 pin advantage had a near insurmountable lead 224. But Mattison’s hot streak was not cooling off in fact got hotter. Mattison got to the 10th frame and if she struck out would roll a 226 and beat her friend by 2 pins.

Mattison buried the 1st strike and then doubled to bring it down to 1 ball. A 9 or strike gives Mattison the win, an 8 and they would go to a 2 frame roll-off and 7 or less Rodman gets the individual title. Lily hits the pocket again and they all go down. Both girls burst into tears with the strangest combination of emotions from Gardner so happy for her friend and some sadness for not getting the top award to Mattison’s being nearly devastated for beating her friend.

Lily said she didn’t want to beat Ava and wanted to throw a bad ball on her last so Ava could be the Champion but Ava told she did not want to win that way number 1 and number 2 their goal was to win a team State Championship and every pin counts so she encouraged her friend to throw the best possible ball and the result will be the result.

It is one of the special moments we get to witness in High School sports and shows why and how sports and other activities truly deliver lifelong memories.

Speaking of there were many other lifelong memories made and achieved on day 1 of the 2A tournament. Here are the top 8 medalist for the 2024 2A State Tournament:

1st Lily Mattison RA Long 1106
2nd Ava Gardner RA Long 1104
3rd Savanna Hoyt-Siler WF West 1071
4th Jade Walters RA Long 1053
5th Lacey McHan Fort Vancouver 1023
6th Lillyian Peschka Forth Vancouver 1020
7th Abigail Klein Highline 998
8th Bailee Spriggs Centralia 996

All 8 received medals for placing in the top 8.

Lane notes:

The high game was rolled by Ava Rodman of RA Long with a 234. Other 200 games included another RA Long team mate Hailey Wright who blasted a 233 just a pin behind Gardner’s top score. Wright started slow with a 128 and 182 and then was substituted out for game 3. Wright then tossed the 233 followed by a 150 and 132 for an 825 series for 5 games or a 165 average. If she had bowled the 3rd game and hit her average she would have been 9th in the individual standings with a 920 series, just 5 pins from a medal.

Lily Mattison was next with a 226, 220 and 217, Salina Stroup had the 5th highest game of 212, WF West’s Savanna Hoyt-Siler a 208 and Naveah Glance from Klahowya a 200. RA Long had 5 of the 8 200 games. The high game rolled by alternates that bowled 3 or few games went to Taryn Albrecht of Fort Vancouver with a 169.

The high 3 game series went to RA Long’s Lily Mattison with a 663. The next closest was her team mate Ava Gardner with a 581, Savanna Hoyt-Siler from WF West had a 557, Jade Walters of RA Long a 540, Abigail Klein of Highline and Bailee Spriggs of Centralia each had a 533.

Team Competition

In the team competition it is a combination of the 6 individual series combined with 14 games of the Baker finals format on day 2. Just the top 4 teams get a trophy.

The RA Long Lumberjills placed 3 in the top 4 and rotated 3 others in to build what turned out to be an insurmountable lead. When the Lumberjills completed the 1st 6 games they racked up a 5,142 pin total or a 439 pin advantage over Forth Vancouver. The Trappers were hopeful of running down the RA Long but first they needed to protect their 2nd place position with the defending Champion WF West Bearcats lurking in 3rd place just 56 pins behind FV.

The Trappers did make a run in the beginning of day 2 during the Baker Team finals. After 4 of the 14 Baker games the Trappers trimmed 109 pins off that lead to get as close as 330 but that would be as close as they would get back as through the next 10 games the Lumberjills would reclaim 72 of those 109 pins to win handily 7364 to 6992 or a difference of 402.

Fort Vancouver’s fast start did allow them to build a lead over the Bearcats from 56 pins to 165 after just 3 games. That lead got bigger ballooning to 226 after 10 games to secure 2nd place with a total of 6992 to the Bearcats 6730, a difference of 232. WF West did well to hold their spot in 3rd place denying newcomer Orting their chance to move up the standings with a 6730 total, 273 in front of the Cardinals.

Orting was just in their 2nd year of even having a bowling team and they qualified for state. Orting Head Coach Chad Nasinec was just pleased to have qualified with such a new program but his girls were not ready to settle for just being there. After the 1st session on Wednesday Orting was in 6th place behind RA Long, WF West, Fort Vancouver, Klahowya and Washington. They trailed the Eagles for 4th place by 117 pins. The Cards recorded series of 703, 675 and 699. After the lunch break Orting caught fire with series of 767, 760 and 769 out performing their 1st 3 games by 219 pins and moved them past both Washington and Klahowya.

In the Baker games, the Cardinals outscored the Eagles in 8 of the 14 games and the Patriots in 9 of 14 games to win the school’s 1st ever State Bowling trophy. Orting finished with a total score of 6457 for 4th, 5th place went to Klahowya with 6395, Washington was 6th with 6159, Burlington-Edison finished 7th with 5819 and Steilacoom 8th at 5724.

Teams and Coaches

1st Place RA Long Lumberjills 7364
Team members: Ava Rodman (12), Lily Mattison (12), Jade Walters (11), Destiny Ramirez (11), Bailee Smith (10), Abbie Ritola (9)
Head Coach: Shane Berridge Assistant Coach: Josh Donaldson Athletic Director: DeWayne McCabe

2nd Place Fort Vancouver Trappers 6962
Team members: Danika Iosty (12), Lacey McHan (12), Lillyian Peshka (12), Annabelle Wiley (12), Taryn Albrecht (11), Caitlyn Lack (11), Melaniah Broom (9)
Head Coach: Lauryn Heying Assistant Coach: Kaylee Krapfl Athletic Director: James Ensley

3rd Place WF West Bearcats 6730
Team members: Brea Tracy (12), Savanna Hoyt-Siler (11), Emma Hamilton (11), Lexie Delisle (11), Aly Wiens (11), Jainah Johnson-Williams (11), Codi Bieker (11)
Head Coach: Don Bunker Assistant Coach: Rich Bunker, Cassandra Chalmers, Bob Spahr Athletic Director: Tommy Elder

4th Place Orting Cardinals 6457
Team members: Karley Nixon (12), Dannielle Rapacz (12), Gracie Stobie (12), Maddlynne Halte (11), Haven Uhl (10), Lauren Ahmu (9), Natalie Youngman (9)
Head Coach: Chad Nasinec Assistant Coach: Jeff Stobie Athletic Director: Tyler Polly

5th Place Klahowya Eagles 6395
Team members: Salina Stroup (11), Allie Corn (10), Naveah Glance (10), Madison Tangen (10), Ray Ventura (10), Claire Baker (9)
Head Coach: Jim Roadruck Assistant Coach: Brian Roadruck Athletic Director: Geniqua Harris

6th Place Washington Patriots 6159
Team members: Maleeyah Fulghum (12), Veronica Martinez-Estrada (12), Price Nelson (12), Jasmyn Sharp (12), Angelina Nguyen (11), Jenna Woods (11), Carah Geiger (10)
Head Coach: Steve Mead Assistant Coach: Alyssa VanGundy Athletic Director: Pam Spitzer Olson

7th Place Burlington-Edison Tigers 5819
Team members: Lilliana Rocha (12), Kaitlyn Crawford (12), Jasmin Kaur (12), Bethny Cuttrell (12), Tania Corona-Lemus (12), Kelisa Beck (10)
Head Coach: Kristen Caldwell Assistant Coach: Jay Powers Athletic Director: Don Beazizo

8th Place Steilacoom Sentinels 5724
Team members: Sydney Buckholz (12), Emma Owen (12), Serena Tacury, Ava Whitmeyer (12), Emily Medina (12), Viktoria Berggren (11), Rianna Mitchell (10)
Head Coach: Tom Bradbury Assistant Coach: James Ford Athletic Director: Tom Bradbury

Interviews

ESN talks with Lily Mattison