LAWRENCE — Finishing sixth place overall, the Chanute Blue Comets’ unified bowling squad was the highest placing non-Class 6A school at the KSHSAA Unified Bowling State Championships in Lawrence on Tuesday.
“I was happy with the way we competed,” Chanute head coach Roy McCoy said. “The longer we bowled, the stronger we got. The only teams that beat us were 6A teams. That absolutely means a lot. You look at the fact that we’re still considered a new team. It was a very, very good finish. In reality, I know we could’ve been in the top four.”
Hays won the state title, bowling a 1,115 series. Liberal was runner-up at 1,092, followed by Grend Bend (1,013), Garden City (917), Olathe East (823), Chanute (810), Campus (798), Basehor-Linwood (797), Shawnee Mission East (790), Washburn Rural (772), Shawnee Mission Northwest (764), Lansing (748), Olathe Northwest (745), Free State (735), Blue Valley Northwest (722), Olathe West (721), Seaman (721), Baldwin (708), Blue Valley North (696) and Kansas City Turner (679).
Chanute’s first game was the second lowest in the field as the Blue Comets registered a 92. Game 3’s score of 118 was the lowest the Blue Comets rolled the rest of the day.
In their final game, Chanute rolled a day-best 173.
“We shot in the 90s the first game and then we came out and really improved,” Mc-Coy said. “They started having fun. I was so happy with them.”
Chanute’s season ends with a top-10 showing at state and a runner-up showing at regionals.
“It went very well,” Mc-Coy said. “We had several new bowlers in, and now we’ll have to reload. Two of my athletes are seniors and they traveled with the regional and state team. So now we’re looking for middle school kids coming in to fill the shoes.”
The Blue Comets have to replace two seniors in Thomas Shook and Mila Westbrook.
“They started bowling and had close to a 50 average, now they can be in the 150s,” McCoy said. “I have that story with every bowler we have. Every one of them is getting better. So much of it is getting past their own barriers. My whole thing is promoting bridges instead of barriers. We feel that we have given all of these kids a bridge to be successful.”
