WPIBL regular season concludes this week

By: HSSN Staff
Tuesday, February 5, 2019 | 7:48 PM

It’s almost championship time in the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Bowling League.

The regular season almost is complete, and teams and individual bowlers are gearing up for the league tournaments next week and two weeks from now.

The WPIBL team tournaments are first. The boys will bowl Feb. 13 at Nesbits Lanes in Plum, and the girls take center stage the next day at AMF Noble Manor Lanes in Crafton.

The boys singles championship is Feb. 20 at Wildlife Lanes in Lower Burrell, and the girls singles will be Feb. 21 at Sims Lanes in Beaver Falls.

Week 10’s slate of matches is set for Wednesday.

Last week’s frigid temperatures and school cancellations led to the postponement of almost all of the Week 9 schedule.

Each team is to have its regular-season slate of matches completed by Friday. WPIBL officials then will tally the final section standings and individual averages and compile the fields for the league championship tournaments.

The top two teams from each boys and girls section will qualify for the WPIBL team tournaments.

There are tiebreakers in place for teams that finish tied for second.

The section champions also are automatically entered into the Western Regional tournament March 9 at North Versailles Bowl.

The remaining regional qualifiers from the WPIBL will come from the section runners-up. Of those nine teams, the top seven finishers at the WPIBL team championship will advance to regionals.

WPIBL teams will compete at regionals against teams from schools in Erie, Venango and Crawford counties.

To qualify for the WPIBL singles championship, one will first need to bowl a minimum of 21 out of his or her team’s 30 regular-season games.

The two highest averages in each section – 18 boys and 18 girls – will advance to WPIBL singles.

The rest of the field will be determined by a cutoff average – 170 and higher for the boys and 140 and higher for the girls.

For regional singles, set for March 8 and also at North Versailles Bowl, the field will consist of 74 boys and 74 girls, including 12 girls and eight boys from outside the WPIBL. The top two from each WPIBL section automatically qualify.

The top 40 from the WPIBL singles tournament, minus the automatic qualifiers, also will advance to regionals. The rest of the regional qualifiers from the WPIBL will be determined through regular-season averages with the 21-game minimum still in effect.

For standings, averages and schedules, along with playoff results from past seasons, visit WPIBL.com.

Michael Love is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Michael at mlove@tribweb.com or via Twitter @MLove_Trib.