The Glen Este Lady Trojans pose after coming in first place in the Division I sectional tournament at Crossgate Lanes last week.

The Glen Este Lady Trojans pose after coming in first place in the Division I sectional tournament at Crossgate Lanes last week.
By Chris Chaney
Sports Editor

There will be a caravan of Clermont County bowlers heading to the district tournament at Beaver Vu Lanes this week just southeast of Dayton.

Both the boys and girls teams from Glen Este and Milford qualified out of last week—s sectional tournaments as a team. Amelia’s Nic Huber and Nick Trammel qualified as individuals.

The best performance of the sectional was put in by arguably the best team in the section, the Glen Este Lady Trojans. Coming to the postseason boasting a perfect 18-0 record, the Lady Trojans were the team to beat at Crossgate Lanes, but no body could.

“This time of the year, there’s a lot of teams that take a turn one way or the other and I was very fortunate that the kids really decided to step up and perform,” GE head coach Kevin Briggs said. “They came in a little nervous. We came into the sectional knowing that we were the top seed in that place and all we had to do was just bowl how we bowl.”

The nerves got to the GE lady kegglers in the early going, only putting up an 831 in the first game, but they bounced back with two solid games to enter the Bakers as the first-place team.

A strong showing in the six Baker games allowed the Lady Trojans to take top honors at the sectional and earn them the right to bowl with the best at districts, a distinction that Briggs believes should prove beneficial.

“The lane seeding came out (earlier this week) and I sent every one of them a message saying this is what we want. We got the seeding and the lane assignments that we wanted,” Briggs said. “We are with the top two seeds out of every sectional. I always tell them that they’re going to bowl to the level of the competition. Bowling with Centerville, Beavercreek, Seton, McCauley, the teams that we know we’re right up there with in terms of competition, those are the ones who will make you excel.”

Glen Este was led individually by Drew Coulter and Courtney Chaffin who finished sixth and seventh overall, respectively. Danielle Cooper was 15th individually.

The Milford Lady Eagles finished in sixth place among teams, also earning a bid to Wednesday, Feb. 24’s district tournament.

Milford was led by Sarah Schmidtgesling, Lauren Shelton and Jessica Haines, all of whom finished in the top-35 individually. The Lady Eagles will be paired with Fairfield, Mercy, Springfield, Northwest and Vandalia Butler at the district tournament.

On the boys side, it was those same Milford Eagles who excelled. Finishing second overall behind Elder, the Eagles bowled games of 990, 967 and 1024 to separate themselves from the competition.

“This was the highest finish ever for the Milford boys team,” head coach Frank Ritzmann wrote in an email. “On their way, the boys set a new record with 4,190 total pins (and) were led by junior Noah Dolezal who set a new three-game series record of 711 pins.”

Dolezal not only set the school record, but he also earned top honors in the sectional by 12 pins. He was flanked by Nathan McGeorge who finished 12th overall and Josh Cooper who was 22nd among individuals. Josh Brooksbank was 33rd and Jeremiah Mitchell was 51st.

Glen Este squeaked into the district tournament by virtue of a seventh-place finish. The Trojans needed a complete team effort to advance, led by Evan Dennis, Tanner Davis and Brady Dunigan.

Amelia’s Huber was the top individual qualifier at 652 and Trammel was second at 627. They were sixth and 11th overall, respectively.

The boys district tournament is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 25 also Beaver Vu Lanes.

To keep up to date with both the boys and girls district tournaments, follow @ClerSunSports on Twitter and get complete results at swdab.org.