Bomber Bowlers have Impressive Finish to Year - By Peyton Gonzalez
The Girl's bowling team went on to state on January 30th, 2024. We competed individually on January 31st and as a team on February 1st. For the first day, we had the lineup starting with Senior Peyton Gonzalez, Senior Sierra Ruelas, Sophomore Miley Lakey, Junior Alie Lemieux, and Senior Malia Haynes. The two subs that came up to state with us were Senior Ryka Schrim and Senior Elizabeth Thermos. One of our ladies, Ali Lemieux, placed second place individually. She was only 58 pins away from first place, but she still had incredible games, ending with 1098 pins at the end of the individual games. Our team had some disadvantages throughout the day. As a team, we placed sixth and started strong with 213 pins in our first baker. But we fell too far behind by the time we made it to the 14th baker game, and we ended with a total of 6833 pins.
On the first day at state, we walked into Bowlero in Tacoma, Washington. There were 40 lanes and 69 individual ladies, including eight teams that came to compete as a team. We needed help figuring out the lanes and making our balls hook on day one. The day before state, we went to practice to map out how the next day's lanes would be. We struggled the day before to find our sweet spot. So, we didn't focus on scores. We tried to get a feel for the lanes. When we threw our first ball during warm-ups, the bowling balls kept sliding, and we had no reaction because of how thick the oil on the lane was. Moving our feet a couple of boards was not helping us at all, so we also tried to move where we threw the ball down the lane. There wasn't any way to help us find our strike ball, but everyone had different ways to make their ball hook, at least a smidge. Lakey states ¨it was stressful trying to figure out the oil pattern, knowing it was a little different than what we had been practicing at our home bowling alley.¨ The whole team had trouble with the lanes, but we tried to keep our heads up and to keep being positive. As the lanes started to dry out towards the last two games, we had more reaction and control over the ball. We also started to relax more towards the last games, so we weren't overthinking as much as we did in the beginning.
We had many different strong competitors, especially Kamiakan, who we went up against in our districts. Staying close to their scores was important because they are such a strong team. On the first day, the Bombers ended with 4563 pins, and Kamiakan ended with 4930 pins. The Braves wanted to show up at state, mainly with them placing second at districts. They performed great, placing first with 7110 pins. Richland put up a really good fight, especially after not being at the state for nine years. The last time the Bombers went to state was in 2014. We also had a record-breaking placer, Ali, the first Lady Bomber at Richland High School to place 2nd at state. The highest anyone had gotten was 15th place at state, Lemieux says ¨She was surprised but proud of how far she's come.¨ She also said, “Her goal going into state was to make the top eight since that was the limit they picked.” She and our Bombers did a good job at state and competed under pressure and against some strong players and teams. This being our seniors last year and making it to state. We took it all in since we weren't gonna be able to have this opportunity next year. We went from a few rolling their first time at state to all of us rolling our last ball down the lane. This year was a big deal to us seniors. But next year, our underclassmen bowlers are definitely going to be back. Miley Lakey, a sophomore, says ¨her goal for next year is to make it back to state and place higher than she did this year.¨ She will go so far, especially since she has two more years left. Going to state was a good way to end the season and show how far we've come in our season.
