FAIRBORN — In a pair of battles between the top two teams in the Greater Western Ohio Conference’s American South division, Xenia and Fairborn’s leaders both stayed out in front after Thursday afternoon’s Jan. 25 high school bowling competition at Bowl 10 Lanes.
Fairborn’s first-place boys varsity team (6-4 overall, 6-3 GWOC South) defeated second-placed Xenia, 2,317 to 2,212, as J.T. Cherpeski, Dylan Eichman and Kyle Donaldson tossed respective two-game series of 448, 446 and 443.
Xenia (8-6, 5-5 GWOC South) was led by Zane Eneix’s 423 series and a 379 series number by James McDaniel.
Xenia’s division leading girls contingent grabbed a road win over current division runners-up Fairborn by a team overall score of 2,191 to 1,942. Kailee Palecek (441) and Caity Moody (413) had the top series scores for the Buccaneers (12-2 overall, 9-1 GWOC South).
“We had three girls roll games in the 200s (Palecek, Moody and Gillian Miller). Whenever you can get that from your bowlers, that’s a pretty good day at the office. We’ll take that any day,” said Xenia bowling coach Robert Rose. “The girls have become very competitive. I use the word ‘feisty’ to describe them.”
Audrey Renner rolled the top series for the Skyhawks girls, a 349 series. Fellow Skyhawk Emily Reichert threw her first high-game, a 209. Fairborn’s girls varsity is now 7-4 overall, 6-3 in the GWOC South.
Fairborn’s boys are now 1.5 games out in front of Xenia in the standings. Both teams have several GWOC South matches still on the schedule, however. Xenia’s girls now lead Fairborn by 2.5 games.
Fairborn has five division matches left while Xenia has four.
“This gives us a bigger lead, but we’re not celebrating anything for a while,” Fairborn coach Eric Mrenak said of the boys’ division lead. “We’re just taking things one match at a time. The rest of our matches are all GWOC division matches. So we still have some bowling ahead of us to do.”
Xenia won both of the junior varsity matches.
In the boys JV match, Dalton Hinders rolled the high two-game series with a 305 and the Buccaneer boys JV claimed a 1,442 to 1,429 win. The matches were close: Xenia led after the individual games were rolled by 15 points (1,216 to 1,201), but Fairborn won the Baker game total by two pins, 228 to 226.
Brad Ward was Fairborn’s top boys JV bowler, with a 289 series.
In a rarity, the two JV boys teams tied in their second Baker game, 116 apiece.
Caitlyn Madrid tossed a 290 two-game series, and Aly Hand rolled a 289, to lead the Xenia girls to a 1,341 – 1,021 win in the girls JV match. Xenia had high score after the individual games, then swept both Baker game totals for the win.
Mei Lin Kuttila led Fairborn’s JV girls with a 220 series.
According to the GWOC websites, Fairborn is back in action at 10 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 27 in the Jaguar Baker tournament in Hilliard. Xenia’s boys have a home noon contest Saturday against Butler at Beaver-Vu Lanes in Beavercreek. Both Buccaneer squads will then bowl at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 30 against Stebbins at Pla Mor Lanes in Dayton.