South Warren advances to state, Barren’s Tooley wins region
By Perry Swack
The KHSAA Bowling State Championships wrapped up last week at Executive Strike and Spare in Louisville. Barren County and South Warren sent representatives to the event, which is in its tenth year of existence. Barren County’s unified team of Quintin McKenzie and Kadyn Hargis went on a tear through the unified championship, starting with a 178 in qualifying that seeded them first for bracket play. From there, the duo eked by 8-seed Beechwood (151-50), knocked off 4-seed Fern Creek (190-132), and breezed by 2-seed Henderson County (203-141) to bring the state championship back to Glasgow. The Barren County pair qualified for the state tournament by winning the 1st Region unified title.
Area schools Greenwood, Warren Central, Warren East, Barren County, and Metcalfe County all compete in the 1st Region alongside South Warren. Russell County is the only area school competing in the 2nd Region. The Lady Spartans qualified for the state tournament by way of finishing second at region. Barren County’s Chloe Tooley qualified for the state tournament after winning the individual region championship.
South Warren finished second in the region tournament for the first time in program history. The Lady Spartans pulled off a few upsets along the way after placing sixth overall in seeding play. They bowled a two-game score of 761 in seeding play, 213 points behind leading Graves County. South dispatched of #11 Henderson County and #3 Warren East to set up a showdown with #2 Barren County. The Trojanettes are the only school in the Bowling Green Area that has won a region bowling championship (2019). However, the Lady Spartans knocked off Barren, 492-419, to advance to the finale. Awaiting South Warren was Daviess County, who knocked off 1st Region power, Graves County, in the other semifinal matchup. The Lady Spartans led throughout the match but ultimately fell, 712-675.
Barren County’s Tooley opened her tournament with a 150 but closed with games of 191 and 220 to qualify her for the semifinal round (two more games among the top eight bowlers). Tooley bowled games of 179 and 172 to safely qualify for the finals (top four bowlers in a stepladder competition). Maddie Phelps of Daviess County defeated Maggie Johnson of Henderson County before being ousted by Tooley, 178-174. The Barren County bowler would then face 1-seed Abigail Hamilton, who in qualifying, bowled four games over 200 with a best of 278. Tooley managed to win though, knocking off the Graves County star, 169-149, to win the region title.
1st Region Breakdown
Six area schools competed in the 1st Region Tournament – South Warren, Greenwood, Warren East, Barren County, Warren Central, and Metcalfe County. As noted above, the teams from the Greater Bowling Green Area have not found much title success in the sport’s ten-year existence. Graves County has won 7 of 10 championships dating back to 2012. Barren County has won title and two runner-up finishes, while Bowling Green, Warren East, and now South Warren each have one runner-up finish. The Trojanettes beat #7 Apollo before being ousted by #6 South Warren in the semifinals of the team competition. #3 Warren East lost in the quarterfinals to South Warren as well. #9 Warren Central defeated #8 Greenwood before losing to #1 Graves County in the quarterfinals.
Four more area bowlers qualified for the semifinals – Liz Stigers of Warren East placed fifth with a five-game score of 870, Greenwood’s Ava Ramge in sixth with a total of 861, Warren East’s Maude Forrester in seventh at 842, and Barren’s Elizabeth Doyle in eighth at 836.
The Barren County duo of McKenzie and Hargis won the region title after beating Apollo (158-80) and Henderson County (159-49).
Chloe Tooley went on to the state tournament where she finished in 22nd place with a total score of 486. South Warren finished twelfth in qualifying at 806 before losing to #5 Boyle County in the opening round of bracket play.
Other Region Scores from Area Teams (with their overall finish)
1st Region
Barren County
2. Chloe Tooley 912
8. Elizabeth Doyle 836
13. Krista Smith 485
14. Sazie Endicott 474
Warren East
5. Liz Stigers 870
7. Maude Forrester 842
17. Ali Duggan 458
26. Janna Plains 403
Greenwood
6. Ava Ramge 861
29. Kami Jo Vonnahme 381
43. Tyanna Poindexter 298
47. Mikayla Neely 234
South Warren
11. Lindsay Atwood 495
21. Macy Proctor 426
28. Madison Bartlett 398
34. Julie Goodwin 344
Warren Central
15. Kala Roberts 472
33. Harley Galloway 356
44. Ashley Taylor 288
48. Jayden Armer 225
Metcalfe County
45. Clary Quinn 263
2nd Region
Russell County
22. Summer Aaron 358
23. Ryleigh Winters 351
33. Harmonie Yocum 289
34. Makaylaa Melson 270
