Franklin Regional bowlers aim for more success

By: HSSN Staff
Thursday, December 21, 2017 | 5:33 PM

After a third-place finish in the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Bowling League team championship last season, the Franklin Regional boys returns several key contributors this season.

Last season, the Panthers tallied 2,555 pins (878, 831, 846) and outdistanced Canon-McMillian for the third and final playoff spot by a margin of 27 pins in the 18-team championship.

In the Baker-style playoffs, Franklin Regional lost to Armstrong, 2-0, in the best-of-three semifinals.

The Panthers return an experienced senior class that made significant contributions last year. This season, Franklin Regional will be led by seniors Kyle Wilkinson, Preston Hill and Cruz Fink.

Last year, Wilkinson placed seventh with a 581 at the WPIBL individual championship, which was one spot outside of qualifying for the Baker-style playoffs.

Wilkinson has started strong this season, as he bowled a 300 game and led the Panthers to a 7-0 win over Redeemer Lutheran in East section play on Dec. 13.

“I have been trying to tell them that I know they have a lot of confidence after finishing well last year, but the big thing is for them to stay humble and focused,” Franklin Regional coach Adam Reabe said.

“They have the talent to win some awards for high games and high series. I really want to make sure they keep their focus and strive to get better.”

Juniors Jack Strobel and Zachary Jackson and sophomore Alex Smith will be part of the lineup. Reabe believes the mental makeup of his bowlers will allow them to all qualify for the individual postseason.

“If the cut stays where it was last year, I think they should have no problem making it because they have the talent and focus to do so,” Reabe said.

In the early going, Reabe noticed the bowlers have shown an ability to be more consistent than last season.

“I'm just noticing that everybody looks a little bit more consistent and really eliminating those bad frames or games,” Reabe said. “They need to keep that to a minimum and really raising their average by being more consistent and not relying on strikes to put up a good score.”

Reabe will be without Jake Stoken, who was one of the top seniors from last year's team. However, the Panthers believe they have the depth to absorb Stoken's departure.

“It's one of those things that's inevitable. You lose bowlers year-to-year,” Reabe said. “It's nice that our team has some depth to it that we have somebody come in this year to take that spot.

“We will have a bigger drop off next year compared to this year with trying to replace multiple bowlers at one time.”

Franklin Regional's girls team will be led by junior Keena Gray, who made her first WPIBL individual championship last season. Gray finished 87th out of 101 bowlers as she tallied 429 pins in three games.

“They are really young team with a lot of new bowlers who haven't touched a bowling ball before,” Reabe said.

“They are coming along really well, and I expect a lot of improvement from them over the course of the year. The newer bowlers aren't seniors, so we have a couple years to work with them and hopefully we see improvement.”

The rest of the girls starting lineup consists of seniors Ana Lucci and Kayley Bayne, junior Faye Metzgar and sophomore Alexa Petrucci.

Andrew John is freelance writer.

Tags: Franklin Regional