JOHNSON
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Jonathan Alder’s girls bowling team won the Division II sectional tournament on Saturday.
The Lady Pioneers rolled a team score of 3231 at HP Lanes in Columbus.
They outdistanced Heath, which rolled a 3166.
Alder’s Rena Kirts was the top individual bowler with a score of 553.
The flu bug hampered Fairbanks’ girls during the sectional.
The illness put two bowlers, Makenzie Nichols and Kierra Poland, on the shelf.
A team needs six bowlers to compete in the sectional as a full squad.
With only four available, FHS couldn’t compete for team honors.
A battle with the flu, however, did not keep senior captain Hunter Johnson from advancing to this week’s district tournament.
Johnson shook off her flu symptoms and rolled a 453. That 19th-place individual score qualified her for Thursday’s district match, which will also be played at HP.
Marissa Nicol-398, Sarah Young-377 and Claire Ruff-369 also bowled for FHS.
The Panther boys qualified two bowlers from their ranks on to the district last Friday.
Anthony Nichols’ score of 536 was good for 11th place, while Trevin Rausch finished in 31st place with a 486.
The FHS boys finished with a team score of 3132.
That was just 45 pins shy of advancing to the district as a team.
Caeden Luke finished with a 466, followed by Chris Weese-417, Jacob Nichols-243 (two games) and Peter LaPointe-115 (one game).
“Considering our situation (missing two bowlers), the girls did very well,” said FHS coach Jeff Ungerer.