Chittenango girls bowler Casey Smith is now a state champion.
Smith, a junior, earned that honor on Sunday when she joined the Section III All-Star team that won its portion of the New York State Public High School Athletic Association tournament at Babylon Lanes on Long Island. In her three-game morning session, Smith steadily improved, from an opening 179 to a 193 in the second game and a 210 in the third game, which turned out to be her personal best of the day. When play resumed in the afternoon session, Smith got a 169 in the fourth game and improved to a 181 in the fifth game before finishing with a 158 for a total pinfall of 1,090, an average of 169.33 per game. Meanwhile, Smith’s teammates were also getting the job done, especially Fulton senior Mikayla Guernsey, who up a total of 1,280 that included games of 245, 225 and 222. Another senior, Whitesboro’s Emily Porter had an 1,177 total and 227 high game, 27 pins ahead of Baldwinsville senior Britni Flask, whose 1,150 included a 268, tied for the highest game of the entire tournament. Clinton eighth-grader Meghan Doris had a six-game total of 998 as junior Kate Ely, also from Fulton, had a 951 total. For Section III, it added up to a pinfall of 5,772, peaked by a 1,105 in the third game where Flask had her 268, which ended up 53 pins better than Section VI, who was second with 5,719. Section V was third with 5,644. The boys Section III All-Stars also had a solid showing, finishing third with 6,019, just 50 pins behind the winning 6,069 from Section XI. Auburn’s girls team was third in its portion of the state tournament with 5,370 (East Islip won with 5,632) as Utica Proctor’s boys were sixth with 5,449, Frontier getting to the top spot with 5,987.