The 2016 Individual Bowling Championships were held this past week. In the girls competition, all bowlers rolled 5 games in round 1. The field of 55 was pared down to 22 and those remaining rolled 4 more games. The top 6 advanced to the finals which were in a step ladder format: the bottom ranked finals qualifier bowled the next lowest ranked bowler. The winner bowled against the third lowest ranked bowler and so on until the top ranked finalist plays the remaining finalist in a winner take all game.
Samantha Heindel of Ephrata had the highest single game of the day, rolling a 277 in game 9, the final game of round 2 but did not have enough to make the finals. Olivia Farwell, Kaylay Hablieb, Bryanna Young, Brittany Ritzman, all of Elizabethtown, Allison Hresko of Cedar Crest, and Randi Rambo of Solanco were the finalists.
Hreshko entered the finals ranked 5th of 6 and won a pair of games before falling to teammate Young (ranked 3rd). Young won a pair herself before falling to the 2016 LL League Girls Bowling Champion Oliva Farwell of Elizabethtown.
On the boys side, pins were flying early as Jordan Wakefield of Penn Manor and Dylan Smith of McCaskey both rolled 300 games in round 1 on their way to round 2 (35 of 87 boys moved on). Wakefield did it again in round 2 on his way to the top spot in the step ladder finals, the perfect game achievement being matched in round 2 by teammate Nick Fisher and Jon Pleger of Lancaster Catholic.
In the finals, Pleger came out of the 4th spot to win twice before falling to number 2 Ryan Graham of Conestoga Valley. It was Graham who prevailed in the final game to become the 2016 LL League Boys Bowling Champion.