girls' state team championship
LOUISVILLE | Fleming County’s girls’ bowling team has made it a habit to qualify for the state tournament. However, the Lady Panthers have been unable to capitalize on those opportunities.
In each of its six appearances since 2012, Fleming County earned a top-eight seed in the qualifying round, but fell early in the bracket phase of the tournament. And again 2019 was no different.
It has left Fleming County with lingering disappointment and questions of what if, despite having yet another outstanding season.
“I really thought this team, I still think this team, is good enough to win a state championship. Today just wasn’t our day,” Fleming County coach Gary Shannon said. “That’s the way it happens, in sports, in life, in anything. Some days it’s your day and some days it’s not. Today wasn’t Fleming County’s, but there will be a day that will be.”
The day started well for Fleming County in Friday’s team state championship at Executive Strike and Spare in Louisville as the Lady Panthers bowled a two-round qualifying score of 907 (472-435) to earn the sixth seed.
“When we got here this morning, I thought we were in a good frame of mind. I thought we were ready to go,” Shannon said. … Each girl on each team in the first frame left a frame open. We dug ourself a hole. We got down on ourselves. And we did manage to recuperate just a little bit to come back and finish sixth, but that was the lowest qualifying score we have rolled in a tournament this year.”
However, the team stumbled in its first game of the Baker-formatted tournament portion against No. 11 seed Male and could not recover eventually falling to the Bulldogs 134-187, 203-149, 122-129, 157-177, to end its stay at the state tournament. In each of their six state-tournament appearances in the last eight years, the Lady Panthers have been eliminated in either the first or second rounds.
Picking up spares again proved to be Fleming County’s Achilles heel.
“I thought we would get over (our struggles) when we got into the ‘Bakers’ and we’d walk on through,” Shannon said. “What we shoot for as a team is 70 to 75 percent of picking up our spares. That’s what wins matches and wins tournaments. The first game, we left seven frames open and shot 134.”
The Lady Panthers did rally, but it was not enough to spur a complete turnaround.
“We came back the second game (and) I really thought we’d righted the ship. We closed 91 percent in the second frame. We left one open frame all game,” Shannon added. “(But) in the third game the first bowler rolled a split. … We never recovered from that second letdown.“
Two team members qualified for Thursday’s singles state championship. Senior Morgan Napier made her second straight appearance after finishing third in the regional, while sophomore Jeg Flora, a relative newcomer to the sport, also placed third in the regional championship on the boys’ side.
Napier, who became the first two-time qualifier of the 10 girls from Fleming County who have qualified for the KHSAA state tournaments in singles, finished eighth at last year’s state championship. But she could not repeat that performance and finished 18th with a (170-221-148) 539.
Her disappointment showed.
“I started out pretty good. Then I got in my head a little bit. I thought I could do a little bit better, but I didn’t. I just got frustrated and I didn’t do very good,” she said. “When I got into the third game, I got down on myself. … I had two splits and it just messed me up.”
Flora, who was Fleming County’s first boy to earn a spot in the state singles tournament since Dylan Bellamy finished 31st in 2016, also struggled in his outing and finished 30th with a 137-172-157 = 466.
“It took them a little while to adjust (to the lanes). Morgan rolled a good game her first game. She rolled an excellent game her second game. Her third game, she missed a very easy spare in the first frame and it seemed like it got into her head and she struggled in the third game,” Shannon said. “She was laying in sixth place after two games with a chance to make the finals. … When she lost the easy spare, she had two splits following that and it was hard for her to recover from that. But, I’m going to go ahead and say that Morgan is one of the five best bowlers in the state of Kentucky.
“This is Jeg’s second year of high school bowling. … He improved greatly through the last two seasons and then when he got to the regional, Jeg struggled in the first game. He shot a 169 or 170 but ended up backing it up with two 234s to make it to the state tournament,” Shannon said. “When he got down here, … he struggled some with his shot yesterday and it just got in his head and he just couldn’t get it out. Jeg is a lot better bowler than what the scores indicated.”
Despite Fleming County’s struggles in the state tournament, Shannon relishes the tradition of success within the program. The Lady Panthers have placed in the top four in their region six times this decade, including winning two titles and finishing as the runner-up twice, including this year.
“There are eight regions in the state of Kentucky. All of the other regions have an average of 10-12 teams. Our region contains 24 teams. It goes from the West Virginia-Virginia border all the way to Danville, north to Ashland and south to the Tennessee border. That is the size of our region,” Shannon concluded. “For Fleming County to come out of a region with that many large schools in it and consistently make it to the state tournament, that is saying something for your kids and your program.”
The 2019 Lady Panther state-qualifying team members included: Tabitha Abner, Maya Coleman, Olivia Cooley, Sydney Emmons, Hannah Humphries, Ashley Hunt, Loni Jones, Morgan Napier, Cheyenne Ogden and Dani Ross, with coaches Gary Shannon and Jordan Racke.
In each of its six appearances since 2012, Fleming County earned a top-eight seed in the qualifying round, but fell early in the bracket phase of the tournament. And again 2019 was no different.
It has left Fleming County with lingering disappointment and questions of what if, despite having yet another outstanding season.
“I really thought this team, I still think this team, is good enough to win a state championship. Today just wasn’t our day,” Fleming County coach Gary Shannon said. “That’s the way it happens, in sports, in life, in anything. Some days it’s your day and some days it’s not. Today wasn’t Fleming County’s, but there will be a day that will be.”
The day started well for Fleming County in Friday’s team state championship at Executive Strike and Spare in Louisville as the Lady Panthers bowled a two-round qualifying score of 907 (472-435) to earn the sixth seed.
“When we got here this morning, I thought we were in a good frame of mind. I thought we were ready to go,” Shannon said. … Each girl on each team in the first frame left a frame open. We dug ourself a hole. We got down on ourselves. And we did manage to recuperate just a little bit to come back and finish sixth, but that was the lowest qualifying score we have rolled in a tournament this year.”
However, the team stumbled in its first game of the Baker-formatted tournament portion against No. 11 seed Male and could not recover eventually falling to the Bulldogs 134-187, 203-149, 122-129, 157-177, to end its stay at the state tournament. In each of their six state-tournament appearances in the last eight years, the Lady Panthers have been eliminated in either the first or second rounds.
Picking up spares again proved to be Fleming County’s Achilles heel.
“I thought we would get over (our struggles) when we got into the ‘Bakers’ and we’d walk on through,” Shannon said. “What we shoot for as a team is 70 to 75 percent of picking up our spares. That’s what wins matches and wins tournaments. The first game, we left seven frames open and shot 134.”
The Lady Panthers did rally, but it was not enough to spur a complete turnaround.
“We came back the second game (and) I really thought we’d righted the ship. We closed 91 percent in the second frame. We left one open frame all game,” Shannon added. “(But) in the third game the first bowler rolled a split. … We never recovered from that second letdown.“
Two team members qualified for Thursday’s singles state championship. Senior Morgan Napier made her second straight appearance after finishing third in the regional, while sophomore Jeg Flora, a relative newcomer to the sport, also placed third in the regional championship on the boys’ side.
Napier, who became the first two-time qualifier of the 10 girls from Fleming County who have qualified for the KHSAA state tournaments in singles, finished eighth at last year’s state championship. But she could not repeat that performance and finished 18th with a (170-221-148) 539.
Her disappointment showed.
“I started out pretty good. Then I got in my head a little bit. I thought I could do a little bit better, but I didn’t. I just got frustrated and I didn’t do very good,” she said. “When I got into the third game, I got down on myself. … I had two splits and it just messed me up.”
Flora, who was Fleming County’s first boy to earn a spot in the state singles tournament since Dylan Bellamy finished 31st in 2016, also struggled in his outing and finished 30th with a 137-172-157 = 466.
“It took them a little while to adjust (to the lanes). Morgan rolled a good game her first game. She rolled an excellent game her second game. Her third game, she missed a very easy spare in the first frame and it seemed like it got into her head and she struggled in the third game,” Shannon said. “She was laying in sixth place after two games with a chance to make the finals. … When she lost the easy spare, she had two splits following that and it was hard for her to recover from that. But, I’m going to go ahead and say that Morgan is one of the five best bowlers in the state of Kentucky.
“This is Jeg’s second year of high school bowling. … He improved greatly through the last two seasons and then when he got to the regional, Jeg struggled in the first game. He shot a 169 or 170 but ended up backing it up with two 234s to make it to the state tournament,” Shannon said. “When he got down here, … he struggled some with his shot yesterday and it just got in his head and he just couldn’t get it out. Jeg is a lot better bowler than what the scores indicated.”
Despite Fleming County’s struggles in the state tournament, Shannon relishes the tradition of success within the program. The Lady Panthers have placed in the top four in their region six times this decade, including winning two titles and finishing as the runner-up twice, including this year.
“There are eight regions in the state of Kentucky. All of the other regions have an average of 10-12 teams. Our region contains 24 teams. It goes from the West Virginia-Virginia border all the way to Danville, north to Ashland and south to the Tennessee border. That is the size of our region,” Shannon concluded. “For Fleming County to come out of a region with that many large schools in it and consistently make it to the state tournament, that is saying something for your kids and your program.”
The 2019 Lady Panther state-qualifying team members included: Tabitha Abner, Maya Coleman, Olivia Cooley, Sydney Emmons, Hannah Humphries, Ashley Hunt, Loni Jones, Morgan Napier, Cheyenne Ogden and Dani Ross, with coaches Gary Shannon and Jordan Racke.
pre-tournament notes:
boys' TEAMSPl. Name Team Scores
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girls' TEAMSPl. Name Team Scores
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boys' individualsPl. Name Team Scores
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girls' individualsPl. Name Team Scores
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