Two Greenwood High School bowlers garnered all-state recognition last Friday after competing in the 5A state bowling tournament at Hijinx Family Entertainment Center in Jonesboro. The event had been slated for mid-February, but was rescheduled after the recent stretch of unseasonably cold and snowy weather that made safe travel impossible.
The Bulldogs’ Taylor Morehead and the Lady Bulldogs’ Riley Golden both had good days for their respective teams to earn individual all-state honors. The GHS girls placed seventh overall while the Greenwood boys finished tenth. The team is led by Head Coach Chad Mercado, assisted by Barbara Brown.
The Lady Bulldogs totaled 2881 pins for seventh place, including three regular games and four baker games. The Lady Bombers of Mountain Home won the state title with 3093 pins, followed by the Benton girls (3016) and the Lady Panthers of Greenbrier (2990), rounding out the top three spots.
All-state recipient Riley Golden bowled a 455 series for Greenwood, the 12th best score among the 76 ladies that participated in the tournament. She had individual games of 141, 177, and 137. She was followed by teammate Sara Dungan (399) with scores of 146, 119, and 134. Ashlyn Dungan rolled a 381 with separate games of 146, 128, and 107.
Cassidy Childers was fourth for the Lady Bulldogs with a total score of 370 pins with individual games of 125, 129, and 116. She was closely followed by Brooklyn Elmore (351) with games scores of 107, 106, and 138. The final Lady Bulldog to compete was Kennedy Holland with individual game scores or 96, 112, and 114, for a total of 322 pins.
On the boys’ side, the Greenbrier Panthers won the state title with 4277 pins, followed by Van Buren (4118) and Benton (4094). Taylor Morehead led the way for the Bulldogs with a 601 series, one of only eight male bowlers to crack the 600 mark. But the GHS boys struggled as a team and combined for a score of 2672 total pins and tenth place.
Morehead led his teammates with individual game scores of 255, 196, and 150. Next for Greenwood was Aiden Thorman at 501 (165, 145, 191), followed by Nick Yowell at 469 (131, 144, 194), and Kaleb Kennedy at 446 (201, 128, 117). Cooper McCombs rolled a 359 (132, 128, 99) and Ben Bryan had individual games of 119, 99, and 129 for a total of 347 pins.
“It was a tough day for the boys, finishing tenth,” said Coach Mercado. “Taylor Morehead was awesome though and made all-state. It was the same for Riley Golden. She was an all-stater and helped the girls get to seventh place.
“Thank you all for a great season, even with all that we had to work around,” he added, a salute to his players who endured and competed despite all the Covid-19 safety protocols and disruptions in play caused by the virus.