EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA REGIONAL BOWLING

Elizabethtown, Donegal earn state title bids

Bears’ boys team takes 2nd at regionals, will defend state crown in Pittsburgh

PHILIP GLATFELTER

FOR LNP | LANCASTERONLINE

The Elizabethtown bowling team will have a chance to defend its state title. But there’s more to the Bears’ story.

Not only will the Elizabethtown boys be looking to repeat as the Pennsylvania State High School Bowling Championships titlists, they’ll also be joined by their girls team.

Those were two of the three Lancaster-Lebanon League teams that qualified for the bracket finals at the Eastern Pennsylvania Regional Bowling Champion-ships team event Saturday. The boys qualified at Leisure Lanes and the girls at Clearview Lanes. The bracket finals were at Leisure, where the Elizabethtown boys just missed out on a regional title after falling in three games to Milton.

“Honestly, after we qualified (for states), I didn’t care much at all,” Elizabethtown senior Declan Lentz said. “After we finished in sixth, we qualified for states. After that, we were just bowling for fun.

“I love this team. I’m excited (about going to states). … I want to go back-to-back for sure.”

The story doesn’t end there. They’ll be joined at the state tournament March 14-15 in Pittsburgh by Donegal’s boys team. Both schools bowl out of Clearview and they ranked 1-2 in the L-L during the regular season in pins per game, with Elizabethtown averaging 1,024 and Donegal, which went undefeated and won Section Three in just its first year in the league, one pin less.

“I’m proud of my kids,” said Elizabethtown coach Frank Telenko. “If you had told me that we’re going to take both of your teams to states this year and an individual (Ella Eberle), I’d have said you’re crazy.”

“The biggest thing I’d like you to know is everything that Henry Blough and E.J. (Farwell) do for us at Clear-view Lanes,” Telenko said. “You look at three teams from that center that are going to states this year, that’s 100% because of everything they do for us.”

The two teams met in Saturday’s bracket quarterfinals after Donegal qualified third with 4,342 pins (teams rolled three standard games and six baker games) and the Bears sixth (4,259). Not surprisingly, they needed three games to decide their baker match, with Elizabethtown winning 174-166 in the first and Donegal eking out a 181–180 win in the second.

In the third game, there was a one-pin difference heading into the ninth before Elizabethtown’s Mason Moore rolled a pair of strikes to start the 10th and Donegal’s Cooper Palmer left a five-pin split, resulting in a 209-180 Elizabethtown victory.

Elizabethtown looked poised to run the table after 2-0 wins over York Tech in the semifinals (247-161 and 257-214) and a 208-160 win in the first game against Milton, which was the top qualifier with 4,450 pins. But after the Bears rolled five straight strikes from the second to sixth frames for a commanding lead, Milton countered by closing with nine straight strikes to win 258-236.

Three single-pin misses in the third game doomed the Bears, who fell 199-171.

“The second game when they got their string, it was a matter of we didn’t bowl bad, they just bowled better,” Telenko said. “We always talk about that, when they bowl better than you, you tip your hat, tell them great game and move on to the next one.

“That third game, I think we had five or six nine-counts and if we carry half of them, I think we win that match. I said, they can have this match, we’ll take the next one (at states).”

Elizabethtown’s girls qualified third with 3,705 pins and went up against sixth-place qualifier Mifflinburg in the quarterfinals. All three games were fairly close, with Mifflinburg ended up winning in three, 150138, 122-131 and 185-174.

Governor Mifflin, which qualified second (3,862 pins), outlasted top qualifier and defending champion Shikellamy (3,994) in the final, 166-182, 190-183 and 208-169.

Among the team tournament awards, Eberle was recognized for her 677 series, which was third-best for the girls in qualifying, while Donegal’s Dalton Sauder was tied for fifth-best among the boys with a 700.

The Elizabethtown boys and girls bowling teams and the Donegal boys team all qualified for the state tournament at the Eastern Pennsylvania Regional tournament on Saturday at Leisure Lanes.

PHILIP GLATFELTER | FOR LNP/LANCASTERONLINE