St. Clair Bowl in Fairview Heights is the site of this weekend's boys state bowling tournament, and the Metro East will be well represented.
Four area schools will compete in the 24-team event, which will be held Friday and Saturday. O'Fallon and Belleville West qualified by placing first and second, respectively, at the Belleville East Sectional last week at Bel-Air Bowl. In the Alton Sectional at Bowl Haven, the host Redbirds edged Granite City for the team title.
O'Fallon rolled a winning score of 6,591, best among the area qualifiers and 238 pins ahead of West at their sectional. Billy Goodman (1,379) and Tommy Frost (1,375) led the way for O'Fallon, while Josh Brown (1,320), Jason Lewis (1,085), Ryan O'Sullivan (1.075), Mikaid Stewart (201) and Ryan Greynolds (156) rounded out the team scoring.
Matt Klotz (1,371) was the top bowler for West, followed by Nate Burkhardt (1,322), Austin Lawrence (1,248), Bradon Jones (1,227) and Brenden Heidenfelder (1,185).
Mascoutah's Anthony Betcher qualified at Alton with the high individual score (1,390). Triad's Oliver Bodkins also advanced as an individual, finishing fifth with an overall score at 1,346.
Rounding out the top five in the team standings Mascoutah (5,990), Belleville East (5.931) and Wesclin (5,908). Placing sixth through 14th were Cahokia (5,811), Collinsville (5,787), Mater Dei (5.635), Freeburg (5,536), Althoff (5,482), Columbia (5,352), Triad (5,308), East St. Louis (4,218) and Lebanon (3,504).
At Bel-Air Bowl, Alton had a team total of 6,126, while Granite City was 156 pins back at 5,970. Alton senior Philip Meyer had a tournament-best score of 1,396. He will be joined at state by teammates Shane Strowmatt (1,248), Nyles Spurgeon (1,235), Cody Netzhammer (1,216), Adam Woszczynski (856) and Lucas Pejakovich (174).
Eric Mann (1,278) and Billy Lijewski (1,268) were the top bowlers for Granite City and placed second and fourth overall, respectively. Other sectional bowlers for the Warriors were Nathan Briggs (981), Donnie Pikesley (972), Matt Clark (607), Zak Williams (539), Alex Heiman (189) and Nathan Lijewski (136).
Edwardsville's Ben Paolucci (1,249) placed fifth overall and qualified as an individual.
Biggsville West Central, led by individual qualifier Colin Rothzen (1,273), was third in the team standings at 5,923, followed by Highland (5,698) and Metro-East Lutheran (5,263). Placing sixth through 13th were Abingdon (5,261), Edwardsville (5,254), East Alton-Wood River (5,212), Roxana (5,210), Jerseyville (5,171), Civic Memorial (5,068), Piasa Southwestern (5,006) and Effingham St. Anthony (4,526).
The final round of the state tournament (12 teams and 30 individuals) will start at approximately 1 p.m. Saturday.
