Bowling Wrap-Up

Led by Amanda Jester's score of 599, Fort Smith Southside's girls took home the Class 7A/6A State Bowling Championship. It was the school's second bowling title after the girls also won in 2005. Jester was the top girls finisher in the meet that was held at Central Lanes in Hot Springs in February. She bested Jonesboro's Brittany Arnold by 20 pins while Southside's Elyse Stanton was third with a score of 557 and teammate Courtney Moon came in seventh with a 520 total score. As a team Southside scored 3,343 while Conway was second with a 3,257. Bentonville came in sixth with a 3,083 and were led by Melanie Sasse's 516 that was enough for a ninth-place finish. Other top girls finishers from our region were Fort Smith Northside's Stephanie Thomas (530, 4th), Van Buren's Kandace Bentley (529, 5th) and Northside's Miranda Dooley (497, tied 14th). In the boys Class 7A/6A Championship, Van Buren finished runner-up with a 4,039 behind Lake Hamilton's 4,179. Fort Smith Southside tied with Cabot for third with a 3,926. The Pointers received a strong overall team performance. They were paced by John Bentley's 624, Jacob Tucker's 605 and Corey White's 598. All three finished in the top 16 of the individual results. Southside's Aaron Johnston was bested by Conway's Eric Abbate 720-678 for top boys individual scorer. Southside's Jeremy Gilooley was fourth with a 674, Bentonville's Alex Graziani was 11th with a 632, Northside's Tai Tai was 15th by rolling a 601 and Fayetteville Kevin Taylor tied for 19th with a 586. In the Class 5A/4A state championships in Jonesboro, Greenwood's girls were runner-up for a second year in a row. The Lady Bulldogs were outpinned 3331-3227 by Valley View. Siloam Springs' girls came in fifth with a 2,970. Greenwood's Stephanie Little shot a 559 to finish runner-up in the individual scoring behind Vilonia's Tiffany Smith. Greenwood's Laura Sharum chipped in a 471 for a seventh place finish. Alma was the top boys team from the region in the Class 5A/4A Championships, finishing 10th with a 3,437. The Airedales were powered by a third place showing by Eric Watson, who shot a 652. Lincoln's boys placed ninth in the Class 3A/2A Championships in Cabot with a 3,032. They were led by Aaron McAbee's 493. Lincoln's girls were paced by Louise Jensen's 418.