Top bowlers to compete for WPIBL individual titles

By: Michael Love
Tuesday, February 18, 2020 | 4:08 PM

The Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Bowling League crowned its team champions last week as the Central Catholic boys and Greensburg Salem girls took home top honors.

Now, individual bowlers are in the spotlight as the WPIBL singles titles will be decided Wednesday and Thursday.

The boys tournament is Wednesday at Sims Lanes in Beaver Falls, and Wildlife Lanes in Lower Burrell will host the top girls competitors Thursday.

To bowl in the WPIBL singles finals, a qualifier needed to bowl 21 of his or her team’s 30 games over its 10 matches. A boys qualifier must also have averaged at least a 170 with a girls qualifier averaging at least 140.

When all the numbers were crunched, 113 boys met the requirements, and 99 girls punched their ticket.

Greensburg Salem senior Mattie Mae White is the defending WPIBL girls singles champion. She finished second in scoring average during the regular season with a 210.59 over 29 games.

Everyone looked up at 2019 Western Regional champion Shannon Small, a senior from Plum who led the way in scoring average at 223.23 for 30 games.

Small fired a 770 series in Week 10 at Wildlife Lanes, and the series included a 299 game. It is the top girls single-game score this season.

Apollo-Ridge senior Kristin Womeldorf (208.03) and Burrell sophomore Lydia Flanagan (208.00) also finished the regular season with averages better than 200.

White, Shaler Area senior Bella Pilyih, Freeport freshman Julia Cummings, Penn Hills junior Ashley Hepler and Norwin sophomore Justine Stolinski recorded the top five individual scores at the WPIBL team finals and were selected to the all-tournament team.

There will be a new individual champion crowned Wednesday as 2019 WPIBL titlist, Jordan Wright from Blackhawk, graduated.

Those hoping to rise to the top include 21 bowlers who averaged 200 or better during the regular season.

Leading that pack was Central Catholic senior Nathaniel Perl (226.00), who tallied one of two 300 games during a section match. Beaver Falls sophomore Trevor Knopp (192.70 avg.) had the other 300 game.

Norwin senior Michael Fekete finished second in average at 223.60.

Perl joined teammate and fellow senior Charles Zahir, Plum senior Vincent Cocca, Norwin senior CJ Turek and Hempfield sophomore Dom Vallano on the boys all-tournament team at the WPIBL team finals.

The WPIBL singles tournaments are the first steps to determine the boys and girls fields for the Western Regional team finals March 7.

The top 40 boys finishers Wednesday and the top 40 girls Thursday automatically qualify.

The remaining qualifiers will consist of the top two from each section if they didn’t make the top 40 and then those eligible bowlers — based on games and average — from all of the sections until a field of 74 is reached.

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.