For the second time in as many years, the West Jessamine girls’ bowling team is headed to the state championships in Louisville. The Lady Colts will be joined by East Jessamine senior Chester Hukle. West’s Robyn Cheek will also compete at state as an individual.
The Region 8 team tournament was held Saturday in Corbin. The Lady Colts were seeded No. 2 out of 12 schools and received a first-round bye, which set up an opening match against George Rogers Clark. West won in three games (153-114, 214-78, 125-124) to advance to the semifinals.
East Jessamine girls were seeded No. 6 and beat Wayne County in the first round, 142-113, 97-111, 113-100, 113-92. However, the Lady Jags fell in the next round to Montgomery County.
Montgomery ran into West in the semis and the Lady Colts knocked off the Lady Indians 3-0 (153-114, 214-78, 125-124).
West met No. 1 seed Fleming County in the region championship for the second straight year and once again Fleming took the match 3-0 (156-99, 165-156, 184-136).
On the boys’ side, West and East Jessamine took the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds, respectively. But the first-round bye into the quarterfinals would be as far as they got. The Colts fell to No. 8 seed Lee County 3-2; the Jaguars fell to No. 7 seed Corbin 3-2.
The individual region championships were held Sunday. Hukle set himself up with the No. 1 seed after a five-game total of 1,110 — his first game being his best at 278. Rowan County’s Kyle Barhart came in as the No. 4 seed; after defeating two bowlers from Montgomery County, he beat Hukle 180-177 to win the individual title.
West’s Cheek earned the No. 4 seed but fell to Fleming County’s Jerrica Shannon 204-138 in the first round of the stepladder.
The state tournament will be Feb. 7-8 at Executive Strike and Spare in Louisville.
