Kansas high school state bowling: Career outings vault Maize South, Eisenhower to medals
Maize South senior Bailey Gassmann rolled the best series of his career in his final Kansas high school bowling tournament.
It nearly made him a state champion.
Gassman pieced together a 736-pin series at the Class 5-1A state boys bowling tournament at Northrock Lanes on Thursday. If not for De Soto’s Colby Lovegren rolling a 279 in his third game, which vaulted him to a 743 series, Gassman would have been crowned champion.
A runner-up performance at the state meet will do just fine for the individual state qualifier from Maize South, who carried a career-best 202 scoring average this season with a season-high series of 660.
Gassman was one pin off his career-best game with a 267 score to open the tournament, giving him an early lead. He followed with a 240 score in Game 2 to maintain his lead, then closed with a 229 game for a 76-pin improvement on his career-best series.
Another career-best performance came from Goddard Eisenhower junior Miles Blue, who closed with a game of 270 to finish off his first 700 series in his debut season to finish at 727 (fourth place overall) — just 16 pins back from the champion. Teammates Aaron Dimit, a senior who took eighth overall with a 679 series, and Brett Blasi, a junior who placed 13th with a 661 series, also were medalists.
Kansas City Piper prevailed in the team race with a score of 3,522, as runner-up Wichita Trinity Academy was 48 pins away from its first team state championship. Eisenhower actually led the competition entering baker play, but finished with the ninth-highest score during baker and dropped to sixth place in the final team standings.
Trinity was led by two medalists in senior Brady Longenecker, who took 10th with a 674 series, and junior Connor Jahn, who placed 18th with a 654 series. The rest of the team was rounded out by Wesley Hutton (638), Drake Zogleman (598), Croix Wright (561) and Jackson Witt (466).
Other Wichita-area medalists included Buhler senior Trent Sheridan (682, seventh), Hutchinson senior Jaxson Green (669, 12th), Hutchinson junior Brody Ummel (659, 14th), Buhler senior Landon Kurtz (656, 17th), Andover senior Jack Moll (650, 19th) and Andover sophomore Landon Light (650, 20th).
In the girls’ competition, Great Bend won its second Class 5-1A team championship with a score of 3,161 pins, edging out Salina South (3,078) and Topeka Seaman (3,007) in the team race.
Salina South’s Rylee Lambeth won the individual title with a 641 series, which was four pins more than Topeka Seaman’s Katie Price.
Wichita-area medalists included Maize South sophomore Paige Schuler (576, ninth), Buhler junior McKenzie Welch (season-best 575, 10th), Hutchinson senior Chloe Glaser (574, 11th), Andover Central junior Paighton Crumley (573, 13th) and Eisenhower junior Olyvia Choura (572, 14th).
Led by Welch’s medalist performance, Buhler finished in fourth place in the team standings with state qualifiers in Samatha Hulse (541), Sloane Adkins (531), Teigan Nielsen (490), Natalea Geuy (457) and Emily Duran (438).
Maizie South’s girls team took fifth, led by Schuler, Kaylee Boucher (497), Savannah Blake (497), Kinley Barker (446), Sydney Endicott (444) and Ava Kohlmeier (432).
This story was originally published March 3, 2023 at 6:00 AM.
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