Lexi Henderson was the surprise winner of the Class 3A district girls bowling tournament on Friday — even to herself.
“Our main goal today was to win district” as a team, Henderson. “So that’s where my focus was — just trying to help the team win. But as it went along, things just went really well for me today. I’m actually stunned by how well things went for me today.”
Over the course of the regular season, Henderson had bowled five 200 games, only two in the past month and none at Crosley Lanes, where her season best was a 178 in six games there.
But on Friday at Crosley, Henderson reeled off games of 203, a season-best 251 and 221 to claim the district individual title with a 657. Reagan Lorey of Hudson’s Bay was second at 592.
The Evergreen girls bowling team is deep and talented with several different bowlers who can lead the team, including defending 3A state champion Kerissa Andersen.
“Today was just my day,” Henderson said.
Evergreen had four bowlers place in the top five as it ran away with the district team title, outdistancing Bay 4224-3848.
“It’s great to be on a team that is so amazing,” Henderson said. “But it also puts a target on us. Every team wants to go out and beat us, and there are a lot of good teams here. But I think that helps make us stronger.”
Andersen placed third (589), followed by Jessica Dufrain (575) and Dakota O’Neil (574).
The next stop for Evergreen is the state tournament, which will be held Friday and Saturday in University Place near Tacoma. Evergreen is the defending 3A state team champion.
Bay will be joined Evergreen at state, along with third-place Kelso. Other individual 3A state qualifiers were Fort Vancouver’s McKenna Ellen, Jessica Tofte and Katie Campbell and Prairie’s Madi Bash.
The individual and team races were much closer in the 4A tournament.
Battle Ground’s Takara Suhama finished her three individual games with a 186, which tied her with teammate Darian Dyer with a 519 series. Because Suhama’s best game (186) was better than Dyer’s 178, Suhama claimed the district title.
However, Skyview, led by third-place individual finisher Athena Mantalas, won the team title and the district’s lone team berth to state, beating out the Tigers by 38 pins, 3521-3483.
Battle Ground came out of the individual games with a 51-pin lead, but Skyview seized the lead with 234 score in the second of seven baker games.
Battle Ground closed to within seven pins after five baker games, but a 56-pin edge in the sixth baker game helped Skyview claim the title.
Suhama and Dyer claimed the last two individual berths to next week’s state tournament.
