Three state bowling teams reach elimination round at national high school bowling tournament

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Three Louisiana teams advanced out of the qualifying round of the team portion of the U.S. High School Bowling National Championship Saturday at Executive Strike and Spare.

Louisiana’s reigning state champions, the Brother Martin boys and Denham Springs girls, were joined by the Dutchtown girls in making the first cut to 24 boys and 20 girls teams.

Brother Martin finished 16th of 51 teams in the boys division, while Dutchtown placed 14th and Denham Springs 18th among 33 teams in the girls competition.

The qualifying round featured three traditional games with five-player teams and three games of Baker, in which five bowlers each bowl two frames in a game. Brother Martin qualified 15th 18-game score of 3,438. On the girls side, Dutchtown was 14th at 3,050 and Denham Springs was 19th at 2,892.

All three teams were eliminated in the first survivor round, which consisted of three additional Baker games.

Two other Louisiana teams, the Denham Springs boys and Byrd girls, did not make the first cut.

Harlem High School of Machesney Park, Illinois, just west of Chicago, swept the boys and girls team titles.

On Sunday, all five teams will send their individuals into singles competition, along with three other individual bowlers from southeast Louisiana – Ryan Beam of Dutchtown, Jayden Hauck of Hammond and Jordan Wingerter of St. Joseph’s Academy in Baton Rouge.

The singles competition features four games of qualifying, with the top 180 boys and top 130 girls advancing to the elimination round on Monday.