UNIVERSITY PLACE — For a program trying to capture its first state title, Skyview treated Saturday at the Class 4A state championship like any other day at the bowling alley.
The Storm couldn’t say the same thing two years ago at state when they took third as a team. Although it was the program’s best finish at the time, Skyview bowlers also remembered how nerve-wracking the experience was, feeling the pressure to perform.
This time was different.
Skyview opened Saturday morning at Narrows Plaza Bowl with an 879 pin score in the first game to take a quick lead. Some eight hours later, after three more games and 10 bakers, the Storm never gave it up.
With three individual finishes in the top eight, Addysen Case (fourth), Lauren Gaynor (fifth) and Chloe Gregory (seventh), plus steady contributions from Avery Henderson and Karley Coleman throughout the bakers, Skyview finished with a 5139 pin score ahead of second-place Olympia (4934) and third-place Eastmont (4726).
“It wasn’t as bad as I feel like two years ago was a lot scarier,” Gregory said. “This year it felt kind of like any other match.”
“The girls really like each other, they support each other and help each other out,” added coach Traci Chun. “They really pull together as a team, and I think that’s what really made a big difference for us.”
At the onset of this season, however, Skyview didn’t foresee this kind of ending. The team dropped its first match of the season while trying to figure out how to replace a recently graduated senior class.
But the start they remember as “rocky” was helped by a couple of factors. First, co-head coaches Eric Silvey and Chun sought the help of Ron Henderson, a bowling instructor who also coaches some of Skyview’s bowlers who compete outside of the high school season. The addition went a long way in helping Skyview improve.
“He pointed out more specifics that we could get down to perform even better,” Coleman said.
Plus, the addition of a freshman class led by Case, who decided to join Skyview because her high school, Washougal, doesn’t offer bowling as a sport, helped bolster Skyview’s varsity team.
“I think it’s a work in progress,” Gaynor said of the team. “We’ve been building up … Freshmen came in and really helped us (this year).”
This year’s team had only one senior, Gregory, who was called on to anchor Skyview’s lineup in the baker games. On the final frame of the 10th baker, Gregory finished with a strike and a spare to wrap up the season.
“In the roster I’m used to being a starter, and lately our coach has been putting me as anchor, which is so scary,” Gregory said.
“It really feels like a final finish.”
The state title also marks the finale of an eight-year run for Silvey and Chun as co-head coaches. Silvey declared at the beginning of the season it would be his last coaching the Storm.
“I always said if I hit a hole-in-one I’d drop my clubs and leave, and if I won a state championship I’d be done (coaching),” Silvey joked. “At the beginning of the year, I told (Traci) I was done.”
4A STATE CHAMPIONSHIP
At NARROWS PLAZA BOWL
Team scores — 1, Skyview 5139; 2, Olympia 4934; 3, Eastmont 4726; 4, Curtis 4605.
Top individuals — 1, Hayden Bennett, Kamiakin (183-264-246-178) 871; 4, Addysen Case, Skyview (172-231-159-300) 762; 5, Lauren Gaynor, Skyview (175-214-167-189) 745; 7, Chloe Gregory, Skyview (183-135-193-214) 725.
Team results
SKYVIEW — Addysen Case 762, Lauren Gaynor 745, Chloe Gregory 725, Karley Coleman (210-185-154-127) 676, Avery Henderson (139-142-146-206) 633.
CAMAS — Cassie Templer (154-139-180-118) 591.
BATTLE GROUND — Grace Beagle (170-141-133-141) 585.
