Sports

Charger Bowlers Claim Second in Third Match of the Season

by Ken Brown

WHITE RIVER – The Craftsbury Academy (CA) bowling team took home runner-up honors in their third match of the season, falling to Windsor in the title game last week at the Valley Bowl.

Senior Will Patnoe bowled a school competition record 202 to help CA qualify as the top seed in team competition against Windsor, South Burlington, and White River Valley (WRV) over the weekend. Patnoe followed that up with a 200 to lead the Chargers to a sweep of fourth-seeded WRV in the opening round. Second seeded Windsor defeated South Burlington in three games to set up the title match. CA took the first game of the championship match 165-154, but went cold the rest of the way as Windsor rallied 191-162 and 144-136 to take home the title. Jacob Marquis (177), Joe Wilcox (175), and Matt Wilcox (169) all had strong days for the Chargers in just their third ever varsity competition. In junior varsity action, Linden Stelma-Leonard bowled a season-high 127 to help the Chargers capture the title over Windsor in three games. Verna Stoddard and Grayson McNaughten were also steady on the day with high games of 121 apiece.

“I think there were a lot of positives last week,” said head coach and A.D. Connor Bean. “The return of senior Will Patnoe was a huge boost to the squad and overall, everyone bowled great. We had a really good qualifying round, claiming the top seed by nearly 200 pins over Windsor and I feel like we still haven’t hit our potential as a team yet. I think being a new program in the league, there’s a lot of teams that originally underestimated us, however now I think they know that we are a threat and that feels good being the underdog,” added Bean.

There are 12 varsity programs in the state that Bean helped steward along with his own team at CA as co-director of high school bowling for the Vermont Principals’ Association. This winter is the first official varsity season for the former exhibition sport. The first rankings came out this past week and the Chargers are currently fifth behind top seeded Brattleboro, followed by Essex, Windsor, and Burlington.

Twinfield-Cabot (ranked 11) is also in its maiden season and will host the Chargers this weekend at Twin City lanes in Barre.

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