Bishop Carroll hit that magic number Saturday at West Acres, scoring a 2,631 to claim the Greater Wichita Athletic League tournament title. The Eagles also won the league championship with 17.5 points.
The Eagles and Wichita Southeast were tied going into the tournament with 8.5 points. Nance didn’t talk to his team about having to beat the Buffaloes to lock up the league championship. He told the Eagles to focus on just their bowling.
“I didn’t want to say you’ve got to beat this team, this team and that team,” Nance stated. “I just said bowl your best and as long as we hit our own goals we’ll be fine.”
Bishop Carroll reached their goal of total pins and topped the competition by 83. Wichita Heights finished second with a 2,548 and Southeast was right behind with a 2,542. Southeast ended up second in the league standings with 15.5 points, followed by Wichita North (12.5), Heights (11) and Wichita Northwest (10.5).
What impressed Nance the most about the victory was that the Eagles earned it with their top two bowlers finishing outside the top 15.
“The bottom half of our lineup carried us,” he said. “I told them that’s a great team win.”
Andre Morgan led the way for Bishop Carroll with a 685 series, which was good for third place overall. The junior was very pleased with his season-best performance.
“I’m perfectly happy with what I got,” Morgan said with a smile.
Morgan ended up with the same series as North’s Ryen Ingram, but Ingram got second because he had a better individual game than Morgan. The Eagles junior thought he had a good chance of finishing as the runner-up until he glanced at Ingram’s scores right after the tournament.
“I looked over after I bowled and saw he had a higher game than me,” Morgan said. “I was like, ‘Oh, OK.’ ”
It didn’t matter team-wise though as Austin Simons got fifth with a 655 series and Gus Morgan took sixth with a 639 for Bishop Carroll. Simons recorded the high game of the tournament with a 269, a score Andre Morgan was very thankful with.
“Austin really helped out today because our second game we were having a lot of people mess up,” he said. “His 269 game helped us stay ahead during that game.”
Kapaun Mt. Carmel’s Jacob Klitzke topped the boys competition with a 704 series, which is a personal best for him. Klitzke wasn’t even thinking about shooting a 700 series until he had a 469 total after two games.
“When I went into my third game, I knew that there was a chance I could do it for the first time,” he said. “I just felt good.”
Klitzke bowled a 235 in his third game and beat Ingram and Morgan by 19. Brett Carroll was 15 pins behind Ingram and Morgan, helping Heights move from fifth place after the first game to the runner-up spot.
