Dan Stickradt
Sports Scene
Twitter: @LocalSportsFans
Rarely in the 11-year history of the Oakland County High School Boys’ Bowling Tournament has the top-seeded school from the qualifying block ended up as the overall champion.
On Jan. 19, South Lyon made sure that the jinx didn’t tame the Lions.
After emerging from the 30-school qualifying block at Cherry Hill Lanes near Clarkston with an impressive top-seed total of 3841, South Lyon went on to knock off Waterford Mott in the Round of 16 (432-330), defeat Holly in the quarterfinals (374-299), roll over Walled Lake Central in the semifinals (389-340), and claim its first boys’ county crown by topping Farmington-Harrison Unified in the final (405-365).
South Lyon, which reached the Round of 16 last season, is a veteran squad of five seniors, one junior, and one sophomore that was expected to be one of the top teams in this year’s county tournament, which was launched in 2005. The Lions won the girls’ county crown in 2007, but the boys have never emerged the victor, despite many quality showings over the years, until now.
Seniors Tyler Magee, Austin Martinez, Drake McCarthy, CJ Hatton, and Steven Hogg, sophomore Ryan Zaharia, and junior Shane Kernohan joined forces for the Lions’ marathon win. South Lyon also had a pair of top-20 finishers in the high series and two more top-20 placers in the high game competition during the morning singles play.
“We had a little bit slow start to the season, but we definitely picked it up,” said South Lyon coach Fred Ringrose. “We were third at the Bay City Tournament, and now we came in here and won. It’s a really difficult tournament to win, especially as the [top seed]. It doesn’t happen often that the top seed ends up winning this tournament. But the boys bowled consistent, and we have five seniors that have been around for a while. We won the KLAA last year, and I think that was when we really took the next step as a team.”
It marked the third time in six years that Farmington-Harrison Unified had reached the finals. It defeated South Lyon in the 2010 final, while it lost to Detroit Catholic Central in 2014. Farmington-Harrison came out of the qualifying block as the 10th seed and defeated Waterford Kettering, South Lyon East, and Brother Rice to reach the final.
“We have a young team. We have a couple of experienced bowlers and a few other bowlers, but this was a great experience for them,” said Farmington-Harrison Unified coach Dennis Hermani. “This gave us a great way to gauge ourselves, going against Fred Ringrose and South Lyon. We lost in the finals last year, but the players have nothing to hang their heads about. Two years in a row, we played well enough to advance to the finals. That’s a nice accomplishment.”
Individually, Brandon’s Mickey Beadlescomb fired a near-perfect 298 to claim the high game crown. Detroit Catholic Central’s Joe Alvord (280), Oxford’s Drew Pappas (269), Brother Rice’s Kyle Redmond (266), and South Lyon’s Drake McCarthy (266) followed in the top five.
Pappas fired a pair of 269s to win the high series crown by just one pin, with 728 total. Catholic Central’s Alvord totaled 727 and McCarthy finished at 721. Birmingham Unified’s Jordan Bryant (702) and South Lyon East’s Austin Pakkala (684) also finished in the top five.
dan.Stickradt@northoaklandsports.com