East Limestone, James Clemens advance to AHSAA State Bowling Championships

Published 10:01 am Tuesday, January 24, 2017

East Limestone and James Clemens are going bowling this weekend at Pelham’s Oak Mountain Lanes.

East Limestone’s boys team and both teams from James Clemens qualified for the AHSAA State Bowling Championships, held Jan. 26-27 in Pelham. The teams advanced to the championships after qualifying at the North Regional Tournament held Friday, Jan. 21, at Tuscaloosa’s Leland Lanes.

East Limestone had three bowlers place as high scorers in individual sets. Out of more than 90 competitors, Brendan Ferris finished eighth, followed by Brandon Wade (10th place) and Austin Turner (16th) to lead the Indians. Ferris had the highest individual score at the entire regional, bowling a 256 in his final game.

“I was very impressed how well he bowled with all the stress of competition,” said East Limestone bowling coach Terri Harris about Ferris. “All of our bowlers did a great job to seed us as fourth out of 16 teams for Friday’s competition. We do not have any seniors on our team, so this is impressive that we can compete so well with others who have a lot of seniors on their teams.”

East Limestone’s girls team also competed at the regional, but did not qualify for state.

James Clemens boys won the North Regional Tournament for the second straight season. The Jets defeated Etowah 947 to 776 in the finals. Southside-Gadsden won a close match over defending North Regional champion James Clemens in the North girls’ finals, 784 to 757. James Clemens swept both the boys’ and girls’ regional championships last season.

East Limestone’s boys team competed in the closest match of the day, falling to Lincoln, 892-890. James Clemens boys team earned the highest team total at the North Regional with a 947 in the finals.

The top eight girls’ teams and top eight boys’ teams in Friday’s championship elimination bracket from each region advanced to earn a berth in the second annual AHSAA State Bowling Championships.

Defending state champions are Spain Park’s boys and Sparkman’s girls. Both are among the qualifiers from regional tourney competition.

Thursday’s competition begins at 12:30 p.m., which will determine seeds for the elimination round, beginning Friday morning.