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ST. CLAIRSVILLE - Conotton Valley could do no wrong on Saturday as it swept the boys' and girls' competitions at the 2022 OVAC 1A/2A/3A Bowling Championships inside St. Clair Lanes.
The boys scored 3,795 points to defeat runner-up Barnesville, which finished with 2,940 points and Buckeye Local with 2,888 points.
The girls' event had the same top three finishers with Conotton Valley taking top honors with 3,406 points, the Shamrocks earning second at 2,860 and the Panthers taking third with 2,525 points.
"Conotton Valley was the class of the field," Barnesville coach Chad Hall said. "But, runner-up for boys and girls was a pretty good day for us."
Conotton Valley's Bobby Brennan was the winner on the boys' side with a total score of 727. His best performance of the day came in Game One as he fired a 279.
Brennan's teammates Nolan Caldwell (643) and Robert Myer (638) rounded out the Top 3 but Barnesville's Matt Hall placed fourth with a total score of 622.
Matt Hall started strong with a 246 in Game 1 but a 135 in the second match left him motivated to finish strong.
That he did. The junior Shamrock came back with a 241 to help lift his squad to runner-up honors.
"Our boys struggled in the second game," Coach Hall said. "I talked to them and they fought hard after that. That's all I can ask out of them. We had a couple of young guys step up and fill in when they needed to. We were down 56 pins going into the Bakers and we made that up and ended up 52 points ahead of third place.
"Matthew Hall fought back in the third game, too, with a 241."
Leading the pack for the girls was Conotton Valley's Mackenzie Willoughby with a 684, followed by teammate Daphne Stuber with a 648.
Barnesville's Breanna Flood placed third with a 556. She fired a 178 to open the event, followed by a 175 and a 203 to finish strong.
"Breanna Flood puts in a crazy amount of work," Coach Hall said. "She is a good golfer and that also helps from one sport to the other."
Buckeye Local's Brooke Shaffer placed fourth with 520 points and Barnesville's Regan Campbell turned in 474 and teammate Tessa Johnston supplied 462 points to place seventh and eighth overall.
"Our girls bowled hard and that is all you can ask for," Coach Hall said. "It helps going against competition like Conotton Valley. We have a pretty veteran group with a couple of seniors and three juniors. We've got talent but sometimes you just run into better teams and that's all there is to it.
"With our bowling alley being down right now, it's tough to get practice time but it will be back up in the next month and a half or so and hopefully next year we'll be able to get more regular practice in and be in position to be here again."