High school bowling: Wadsworth's Hayden Eagon-Mohlmaster, Buckeye's Aubrey Reuter lead state contingent

Wadsworth's Hayden Eagon-Mohlmaster and Buckeye's Aubrey Reuter took very different paths to the Division I state bowling tournament.Eagon-Mohlmaster grew up with the game, was All-Gazette as a freshman, Gazette MVP as a sophomore and will be making his first state appearance as a junior when the boys tournament begins at 10:45 a.m. today at HPL Bowling Center in Columbus.Reuter, a senior urged to participate in a high school sport by parents Steve and Joedda, didn't start bowling until her sophomore year, when she fired a 12-pound straight ball and averaged 115.8. That mark jumped to 160.0 en route to All-Gazette honors as a junior and is now 191.6 heading into the girls state tournament, which will be Saturday at 10:45 a.m.Reuter will be joined by the Wadsworth girls team of Aubrey Masuda, Cassidy Myers, Addy Martin, Ella Brandenburg, Morgan Shaeffer, Grace Dunwald and Ellie Shoemaker, which will be looking to improve upon a 12th-place finish at the 16-team event last year.Eagon-Mohlmaster, a quiet but powerful left-hander who is averaging a Medina County-high 216.6, is coming off a 289 in his final game at the Northeast District at Rebman Recreation. He is fully capable of putting up a big three-game series today, but is being careful not to put any added pressure on himself."I'm going there to bowl well," he said. "I don't think I'm going to go in there and sweep it all, but I can go in there and bowl a decent number."I know it's a big thing, but I try to keep my mind off of it. I try to remember it's just a tournament. I just want to do the best shot I can and repeat it all the time. There are going to be nerves because it is a big thing — and it's a great thing that I'm going — but it's still just bowling. It's something I do all the time."The same is now true for Reuter, who drives to Rebman Rec in Lorain to take lessons from Tom Reid. Due to weight training and natural strength, she now uses a 15-pound ball and is coming off Summit Count Sectional and Northeast District championships."A lot has changed," the 18-year-old said of her improvement from her sophomore year. "Any interest I find myself in, I want to get better. I like challenges, but I also like mastering things. My junior year was a significant improvement from the previous year. My skills grew and my passion grew."Reuter, who plans to major in forensic drug analysis at Bowling Green and might bowl for the school's club team, is the first Buckeye bowler to advance to state."It's an honor to get to this point," she said. "I didn't know until my win at districts that I was the first bowler from either side to make it. I am grateful to receive whatever placing I get at states. At the end of the day, that's the No. 1 tournament in the state. I'm feeling pretty confident. I feel like I can make it into the top eight."The Wadsworth girls team, which had the eighth-highest district pinfall of the 16 teams at the state tournament, has the exact same goal, because a spot in the top eight would put the Grizzlies into the bracketed quarterfinals, where a best-of-five Baker games format is employed to advance to the semifinals and final and anything can happen.To get there, the Grizzlies will have to put up a good pinfall through three games of individual bowling and five Baker games."Last year was everyone's first time competing at the highest level," said Masuda, a junior and two-time All-Gazette pick who leads Wadsworth with a 189.2 average. "Now that we have the experience, we know what to expect. We're all motivated to do better because we worked hard all season for this. We earned our spot and we want to make the best of it."The main thing is just to have fun. We saw that at districts. Keeping that same energy will get us further this year."Myers, a junior who earned All-Gazette honors as a sophomore after transferring from Norton, is right behind Masuda with a 184.4 average, while Martin, a senior who had Wadsworth's top series at districts this season (565) and at state last year (555), comes in at 158.0. If those three perform like their capable of, the efforts of seniors Brandenburg, Shaeffer and Dunwald and freshman Shoemaker will go a long way toward determing how high the Grizzlies finish."It's pretty much the same as any other tournament," Shaeffer said. "There's just more pressure because you know all the other teams are really good."A year ago, the Grizzlies were 13th after three games of individual bowling. Despite averaging an outstanding 182.6 in their five Baker games, they moved up just one spot to 12th and failed to advance to the quarterfinals. This year, they're hoping to put themselves in a better heading into the Baker games."It would be very exciting but also very nerve-racking," Shaeffer said of reaching the quarterfinals. "All you have to do is try your best."Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com.