This year’s District Championships were held at the 68 lane Beaver-Vu Bowl in Beavercreek, Ohio on Thursday, February 20th, 2014. The format was 3 regular games and 6 baker games. Total pinfall would determine the State Qualifiers. “We did not have any trouble making it though Sectionals last week, however, it was not one of our best showings this year. These guys had several great practices before District and I knew they were ready,” said Coach Davidson.
The Tigers started out on fire by posting a tournament leading 1,099. 4 guys posted scores over 200 with Michael Davidson leading the way with a 268, Ben Ahrens 238, Zach Marshal 215 and Alex Groff 205. It took a couple frames to figure out the lanes the next game as every team moved to a different pair of lanes. They stayed hot and posted another nice score of 1,031. 3 guys posted games over 200 with Michael rolling a 234, Alex 219 and Ben 211. The Tigers remained in 1st after two games notching Sectional Champion, Urbana, by about 70 pins or so. The lanes were starting to get a little tricky, especially after they moved pairs again. The team kept their composure and made the necessary adjustments and finished with a 994. This game the Tigers were led by Michael 215, Dustin Ruhe 215 and Ryan Watren 212. This was enough for a 3,124, beating the school record that was set back in 2011-12 of 3,092.
“For the 1st two games, this was the least amount of coaching I had to do all year. These guys were just flat out on a mission. The 3rd game started a little rough, so I had to step in and help make some big adjustments and a bowler change. There was just something about today that Coach Watren and I knew they had in them. These guys showed some Moxy on the lanes today,” said Davidson. After a break to tally the scores, Versailles was leading Urbana by 120 pins or so and the 4th place team was 349 pins out of first. Versailles and Urbana were then paired up to bowl the 6 Baker Games on a neutral pair. The lanes were not re-oiled and they were getting very tough. The 1st two games the Tigers struggled a bit rolling a 161 and 169. Urbana cut the lead to about 80 pins, so it was time to go. Versailles finished strong as they were determined to bring home their first ever District Title in the tough Southwest District. They finished with 212, 190, 222 and 186. They ended up 168 pins up on Urbana and 408 pins up on the 4th qualifying spot that went to Benjamin Logan.
The OHSAA Division II State Tournament will be held Friday, February 28th at Wayne Webb’s Columbus Bowl. The format will be 3 regular games and 6 baker games. The field of 16 teams will then be cut to the top 8 based on total pinfall. The tournament will then proceed onto Bracket style match play (1 vs 8, 2 vs 7, etc) using the Baker style format in a best 3 out of 5 game match until the 2014 State Champion is crowned. All bowlers that qualified as a team and 16 bowlers that qualified as an individual will also be competing for the individual State Championship by using their 3 game score.