WPIBL regular season winding down to final two weeks

By: Michael Love
Tuesday, January 28, 2020 | 5:44 PM

With two weeks left in the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Bowling League’s regular season, teams and individuals are jockeying for championship-tournament positioning with some still fighting to qualify for the postseason.

The WPIBL team championships will be Feb. 12 for the boys at Nesbit’s Lanes in Plum and Feb. 13 for the girls at Princess Lanes in Whitehall.

The WPIBL singles tournaments will be Feb. 19 for the boys at Sims Lanes in Beaver Falls and Feb. 20 for the girls at Wildlife Lanes in Lower Burrell.

The top two teams from each of the nine boys and nine girls sections automatically qualify for the WPIBL team tournament.

The section champions also earn an automatic bid to the Western Regional with seven additional regional slots from the WPIBL going to the top seven finishers among the section runners-up at the WPIBL tournament.

In order to compete at WPIBL singles, a qualifier must bowl in 21 out of his or her team’s 30 games over 10 matches. A boys qualifier must also average at least a 170 with a girls qualifier averaging at least 140.

The Western Regional boys and girls singles tournaments will consist of the top 40 finishers from the WPIBL championships, the top two from each section if they didn’t make the top 40 and the remaining eligible bowlers, in terms of games and averages, from all of the sections until a field of 74 is reached.

Entering Week 9 matches Wednesday, a select number of teams are undefeated in section play.

For the girls, Greensburg Salem (Southeast), Butler (North), Burrell (East), McKeesport (Center), Moon (West), Montour (Southwest), and Elizabeth Forward (South) own unblemished section records.

The undefeated boys teams after Week 8 are Hempfield (Southeast), Butler (North), Penn Hills (East), Blackhawk (Northwest), Norwin (Center), Moon (West), Montour (Southwest), and Central Catholic (South).

Central Catholic senior Nathaniel Perl owns the top boys average this season at 224.24 through eight weeks.

Last week, he threw the league’s second 300 game this season. Beaver Falls sophomore Trevor Knopp owns the other.

Plum senior Shannon Small, the defending Western Regional singles champion, leads the WPIBL girls bowlers in average (221.25) with a high game of 280.

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.

Tags: Beaver Falls, Blackhawk, Burrell, Butler, Central Catholic, Elizabeth Forward, Greensburg Salem, Hempfield, McKeesport, Montour, Moon, Norwin, Penn Hills, Plum