ABERDEEN — Both of Richmond Senior High School’s bowling teams showed improvement during Tuesday’s Sandhills Athletic Conference bowling match.
Participating in their second match of the season, the Raiders took first place out of the four teams and the Lady Raiders earned second overall. Richmond bowled against Lumberton, Purnell Swett and Scotland high schools.
The boys’ team and head coach Ralph Butler earned 19 points in the win, bowling a total pin count of 756 pins. Richmond recorded individual game scores of 190, 173, 138, 142 and 113 for an average of 151.2 pins per game.
The opening score of 190 was the team’s highest score so far this season, and the Raiders’ average was 9.8 pins better per game than in Week 1.
“We bowled two really strong games in the beginning which really helped,” Butler said. “We had a little bit of a lead and I was able to sub in some of the new bowlers and get them some experience.
“The team is closing out easy frames more consistently this year,” he added. “Colin Wheeler and Joseph Grant were hot, so I left them in for all five games. Colin closed out 8-of-10 frames with three strikes and Joseph closed out 8-of-11 frames with three strikes.”
Both Grant and Wheeler added five spares in the win, combining for 10 of Richmond’s 15 spares. Junior Cameron Way added three spares and a strike, while senior Hunter Hancock bowled two strikes and a spare and fellow senior Mitchell Massey collected two strikes on the afternoon.
Junior Dexter Mabe contributed to the win with a strike and a spare, and junior Alston Johnson competed for the first time this season and picked up a strike. As a team, Richmond notched 13 strikes.
“As a group, we closed out nearly 70 percent of our frames,” Butler said. “If we can continue that, we’ll be fine.”
In the Lady Raiders’ match, it was sophomore Ashlyn Bouldin who had a strong performance. She bowled seven of the Lady Raiders’ 12 strikes, while also picking up three spares.
As a team, the Lady Raiders scored 13 points and rolled games of 166, 87, 135, 154 and 116 for a total pin count of 658. That brought the team’s average up 32.2 pins per game from its opening match and the first game score was also a season-high.
“Ashlyn was moved to the anchor spot going into the fourth game and that proved handy when she turkeyed out in the 10th frame,” coach Lily Sager said. “Molly Erwin also improved from last week and closed out more frames with one strike and four spares.
“It was obvious that the work we put in last week for this match was seen by the increase in scores and the amount of frames we closed out,” she added. “I’m very pleased with their performance and they helped each other out.”
Senior Josie Standridge bowled two strikes and had three spares, sophomore Cadence Thompson collected a strike and four spares and senior Autumn Hoffman added a strike for the Lady Raiders. Richmond tallied season highs in strikes (12) and spares (14).
Richmond’s bowling teams will return to action on Thursday in Lumberton at 4 p.m.
