Four Whatcom County girls bowlers advanced to state following the 1A/2A, 3A and 4A District 1 bowling tournaments at Riverside Lanes on Tuesday, Jan. 23.
Meridian junior Audrey Terpstra is headed to the 1A/2A state tournament while Ferndale sophomore Madison McFadden qualified for the 3A state tournament.
Additionally, Ferndale senior Katelin Oord, Meridian sophomore Dakota Hill and Blaine senior Bella Vezzetti will be state alternates.
A pair of Bellingham Combined bowlers, sophomore Diva Marsh and junior Cassandra Berwick, also qualified for the 4A state tournament while junior Gabrielle Gearhart will be an alternate. Bellingham Combined merges bowlers from all three Bellingham high schools — Sehome, Bellingham and Squalicum, which is why it competes at the Class 4A level.
McFadden was the 3A district tournament’s best bowler, finishing with a four-round score of 637. Everett’s Lexie Zabel was the next closest with 611. Consistency was key for McFadden, whose lowest single-game pin total was 147 and her highest was 175.
Terpstra posted the fifth-highest four-round score among 1A/2A bowlers, finishing with a 550. Her best game came in round two, bowling a 201, and she weathered a rough 99-pin total in round three to clinch a state berth.
Marsh finished with a 590 four-round score in the 4A District 1 tournament, led by a 163 in the third game. Berwick totaled 561 with a high of 166 in game one.
All four bowlers are headed to their respective state tournaments for the first time.
Ferndale junior Haylee Ochoa, who qualified for the 3A state tournament each of the last two seasons and finished 57th overall last year, did not qualify after posting a four-round score of 471. Ochoa was outdueled by teammates McFadden and Oord, the latter of whom finished with a four-round score of 531.
Anacortes has two bowlers headed to the 1A/2A state tournament in juniors Trinity Erickson (four-round score of 553) and Morgan Gudmundson (543).
The top team score in each district tournament also qualified for state as a group. Burlington-Edison earned the 1A/2A bid, while Everett earned the 3A berth. The former will send six bowlers and the latter will send seven.
Burlington-Edison finished with a team score of 2,940, led by sophomore Kelisa Beck’s four-round score of 721 — the highest individual total of all 1A/2A bowlers. Everett (2,486 team score) edged Ferndale (2,480) in the 3A District 1 tournament for the team berth by just six pins. Cascade (2,463) wasn’t far behind either, making for an incredibly close finish among all three teams.
In the 4A District 1 tournament, Mount Vernon/Sedro-Woolley’s combined program qualified as a team (3,193 team score), and it will send seven bowlers to state. Junior Hailey Lennox led the group with a four-round score of 769, as she notched a trio of 200-plus-pin games.
The 1A/2A and 4A state tournaments will be held Jan. 31–Feb. 1 at Bowlero South Seattle in Tukwila. The 3A tournament will be held at the same place, but it will run from Feb. 2–3.
Connor J. Benintendi is a former CDN sports reporter, send tips and information to newstips@cascadiadaily.com.
