SM Northwest boys, Olathe North girls win Kansas bowling regional titles

Two years ago, Shawnee Mission Northwest’s Quinton Nicolace fell one pin shy of qualifying for the Kansas state bowling tournament. Last year, he wasn’t one of the bowlers the team took to regionals.

So Saturday offered a final opportunity for Nicolace, now a senior, and he left no doubt this time.

Nicolace became a Kansas 6A regional champion after bowling a school-record 706 series at AMF West Lanes. He is headed to the state tournament in Olathe next week for the first time, and he’s bringing along some company — the SM Northwest boys also won as a team with a 2,551 combined score to advance collectively.

“My senior year, I wanted to make it big,” Nicolace said. “I’m so happy I won this.”

SM West sophomore Abby Baker won the girls regional championship with a season-high 651 series, and the Olathe North girls won as a team with a combined score of 2,235.

The top three teams and next six individuals qualified for the state tournament out of the 10-school regional.

Also qualifying from the girls tournament were runner-up Olathe East (2,121) and third-place SM West (2,116). The SM Northwest boys were joined as state qualifiers by SM North (2,549) and SM East (2,494).

“I wanted to make my team go to state,” Nicolace said. “I would have been upset if my team didn’t go.”

No SM Northwest bowling team had ever qualified for state as a group, and before Saturday, no Cougars bowler had ever rolled a 700 series, coach Britt Haney said.

Nicolace helped check both of those feats off the Cougars’ to-do list with games of 268, 224 and 214. He narrowly edged out SM North’s Michael Kozak, who finished as regional runner-up with a 701 series.

Rounding out the SM Northwest boys’ top team score were Zack Cole (639), Brett Dowell (621) and Shane Jennison (585). Along with Kozak, Joe Haas (650) placed seventh to spur SM North. And Curtis Wells led third-place SM East with a 655 series to place fourth individually.

Qualifying for state as individuals on the boys side were Olathe Northwest’s Jesse Foulk (667, third place) and Brad Keepes (652, sixth), SM West’s Matt Beeghly (655, fifth), Olathe North’s Ryan Engle (647, eighth), Olathe South’s Garrett Hayhow (645, ninth) and SM South’s Henry Haake (645, 10th).

Leading the way for the Olathe North girls’ first-place finish were Tina Moore (587, sixth), Kendra Marr (587, seventh), Emilee Dodson (531) and Brittany Barker (530). For Olathe East, Brooklyn Ellis finished second with a 605 series, while Brenda Ellis took third with a 604.

Individual state qualifiers on the girls side were Olathe Northwest’s Jennifer Wood (595, fourth), SM East’s Ali Dees (589, fifth), SM South’s Katie Constant (580, eighth), SM Northwest’s Kelly Cole (575, ninth), SM North’s Vanessa Sanders (571, 10th) and Leavenworth’s Shanice Brown (550).

PERFECT GAME Greg Fears of Washington rolled a 300 game in the regional at Mission Bowl. Fears had a 717 series.

submitted by RYAN YOUNG - 2009-02-28 22:26:01

Comments - leave comment

• toonerboo says:

  Just wondering why no mention of the 5A-1A Regionals? Washington High School won with a 2701!!! Sumner Academy girls won, yet again, and have NEVER lost.

  Posted 37 weeks ago | Delete