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Thursday, February 21, 2008

T'Wolves Take Yet Another Bowling Title

By Harold Smith
Mountain View Telegraph
    East Mountain High won its second New Mexico Activities Association small-school state prep coed bowling title in three years at the Albuquerque Convention Center on Feb. 13.
    The Timberwolves defeated Bernalillo 3 games to 1 in the best-3-out-of-5 finals matchup. The New Mexico high school bowlers, 22 teams total in all classes, competed at the same venue where the United States Bowling Congress is holding its open championships that began Saturday.
    "This was the first time a high school meet was held on the national lanes," EMHS coach Floyd Belden said. "It keeps getting bigger and better. I think next year there will be over 30 teams."
    The competition began at 11 a.m. and concluded 121/2 hours later.
    "The first year (2006), we won it," Belden said. "And last year, we were the runners-up.
    "But this one was really sweet," Belden continued. "The first one, I pretty much knew we'd win it because of the bowlers I had. And last year, I had all new bowlers. But the freshmen and Robbie (Alley) came back this year."
    The 2006 state tourney was held in celebration of the sport being sanctioned as an "activity" by the NMAA starting in the 2006-07 school year.
    This season's T'Wolves included Alley, a senior; sophomores Trevor Crombie, Matson Hunter, Greg Stottlemyer and Riley Profitt; and freshman Ryan Knight.
    East Mountain swept Santa Fe's Mesa del Sol 3-0 in the semifinals.
    "(The Dragons) were pretty good this year," Belden said. "They gave us a run every single game.
    "I had really believed it was going to be between us and (Albuquerque) Academy," the Timberwolves coach said. "But Bernalillo just tore up Academy (3-1 in the other semifinal)."
    The Timberwolves faced their first hurdle in the qualifying round.
    "There was a minute or two in qualifying when we weren't doing well," Crombie said. "We were in third after two games, but we came back in the third game to get the No. 1 seed. That third game gave us the bye (in the quarterfinals)."
    Individually, Alley finished second overall— as determined in the qualifying session— with a 504 series. Crombie was third at 500.
    "I've been pretty steady," Crombie said. "When I started as a freshman I had a 135 average. I've improved to 182 in league. I've improved a lot in two years."
    In head-to-head bracket play, the teams at state competed in Baker-format games.
    Five bowlers on each team rolled two separate frames in each game with the first competitor bowling the first and sixth frames. Then it went on down the line to the fifth bowler, who threw the fifth and 10th frames.
    Generally, Crombie, as the fourth bowler, rolled the fourth and ninth frames, and Alley bowled the fifth and 10th.