District Boys Bowling: Brookside, Keystone fall short of state

A tough sport shot lane condition made for a very tough day for Brookside and Keystone on Friday at the Northeast Division II boys district bowling tournament at Rebman Recreation in Lorain.Brookside (3,778) and Keystone (3,668) finished ninth and 14th in the 17-team field. Coventry (4,212) won the tournament. Fairport Harding (4,136), defending champ Champion (4,101) and Lake Catholic (4,093) were the other teams to qualify for the state tournament.Junior Chase Davis (181-189-224-594), senior Christian Ortiz (178-179-201-558) and sophomore Matthew Mahnke (217-178-162-557) led the Cardinals, finishing Nos. 23, 36 and 37 for high series out of 88 who bowled a full three-game set."We definitely struggled coming back here after a couple weeks ago when we did very well here," said Davis. "It was a lot harder. Our team altogether wasn't in the right headspace. We were all kind of struggling there, but I think we did as good as we could have."I think I did pretty well myself. Obviously there was the thought in my head that I could have changed a couple of things up and done a lot better but I did what I could at the time. I just tried to stay calm and focus on the next shot and just execute."Brookside was in 10th place with a 2,666 pinfall through three regular games and was 258 out of qualification position. The Cardinals' 1,112 Baker score was sixth in the 17-team field but only good enough to move them up one spot.Nonetheless, it was a decent improvement for Brookside over last year when it placed 14th with a 3,621 pinfall."It was a much more challenging condition than what it was at sectionals," said Brookside coach Matt Mahnke, Matthew's dad. "Sectionals there was a little more conditioner on the lane. It was a little drier so we struggled with the transition but it basically came down to spares. "There wasn't whole lot to be that upset about. We just didn't carry when we needed to and didn't make spares when we had to at the end. That's what it really comes down to. You have to be better. It's not like a dual match. Competition is way higher."Keystone was led by senior Drew Hetsler (175-211-204-590), freshman Gavin Toothman (210-190-180-580) and senior Gus Hoops (205-151-209-565), who finished Nos. 25, 27 and 33."It was going well into the first couple of games," said Hetsler. "Baker we couldn't quite keep up. The oil got pushed a lot down the lane. Our guys started struggling with it. We threw some very good shots but it just didn't want to work for us. A lot of left pins that we couldn't quite tell what was causing it."Some days you have where you can't figure out what's wrong. We had one of those days today. The lane condition was different for sure. Bowling at these lanes we are here a lot during the season for matches. They bowled very different in the tournament. The lanes broke down very differently. I think because of the level of teams here a lot of different balls were being thrown that moved the oil differently."It was still a solid turnaround season for Keystone. The Wildcats made their first district appearance since 2017."If we could carry the pocket today, we would be there," said Keystone coach Kevin Minnich. "They did what we asked. I asked the boys to shoot 900 plus a game and they did. We threw the spares. Pocket 7-10, pocket 7-9, a lot of great shots. I don't know what to say to kids that just crushed the pocket and left a dead solid split. Not that that was our entire problem. We needed bigger scores in the Baker and we weren't able to get it."Keystone was in eighth place through three games with a 2,715 pinfall but managed only a 953 Baker, which was 14th."You have to come out swinging in Baker and we had four opens in the first game, two of those being two easy, makeable spares," said Minnich. "Four opens in the second game. We had some targets today and we missed. I'm graduating almost my entire boys varsity. Reload is the name of the game. I've been fortunate to have a very nice group of kids. That makes all the difference."Contact Paul Heyse at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.BoysTop 4 teams advance to Division II state tournament Friday1. Coventry 4,212; 2. Fairport Harding 4,136; 3. Champion 4,101; 4. Lake Catholic 4,093; 5. Brooklyn 4,029 (64 pins behind); 6. Lake Center Christian 3,843; 7. Field 3,792; 8. Triway 3,785; 9. Brookside 3,778; 10. Edgewood 3,756; 11. Crestview 3,735; 12. Springfield 3,714; 13. Labrae 3,706; 14. Keystone 3,668; 15. Lakeview 3,351; 16. Lowellville 3,240; 17. Ursuline 2,926Individual state qualifiers1. Tristan Roberts (Lake Center Christian), 667; 2. TJ Williams (Chalker), 657; 3. Luke Carey (Triway), 650; 4. Adam Cowper (Brooklyn), 639High series1. Wade Allen (Coventry), 738; 2. Eddie Krofcheck (Fairport Harding), 701; 3. Mason Panhorst (Lake Catholic), 685. Top local bowlers: 23. Chase Davis (Brookside), 594; 25. Drew Hetsler (Keystone), 590; 27. Gavin Toothman (Keystone), 580; 33. Gus Hoops (Keystone), 565; 36. Christian Ortiz (Brookside), 558; 37. Matthew Mahnke (Brookside), 557; 60. Raiden Younkin (Brookside), 515; 68. Hunter Mate (Black River), 505; 71. Conor Fitzpatrick (Elyria Catholic), 497High game1. Panhorst 275; 2. Allen 265; 3. Krofcheck 258. Top local bowlers: Davis, 224; Mahnke, 217; Toothman, 210; Hoops, 209; Hetsler, 204; Mate, 202; Fitzpatrick and Ortiz, 201; Quinn Andel (Keystone), 198; Younkin, 189; Ethan Leiby (Keystone), 188; Joe Romo (Brookside), 148