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Santoro claims L-L Bowling Title
- 21 February 2006
When is a good time to have the best game and best series of your life?Of course, if life were perfect, you would roll both in the Lancaster-Lebanon League Individual Bowling Championships.
That's exactly what Ephrata High School sophomore Samantha Santoro did in Tuesday's L-L championships at Leisure Lanes.
With nearly 100 bowlers -- most of them boys, since girls do not have a separate league -- Santoro topped off the six-hour tournament with the championship. Ephrata also sent Brandon Funk, Christine Gummel, Catlin Edwards, and Chelsea Weik.
The field of 100 was cut to 40 after one round, and Santoro and Edwards remained alive from Ephrata.
After the second round of qualifying, the field was cut down to 10. Samantha was the number 6 qualifier while Edwards missed the cut.
She began the semi-finals with 15 strikes in a row, notching a perfect game in the first of her three game series.
Santoro followed with a 246, then capped the series with 267 for an 813 -- her first perfect game and highest series. For the entire tournament, she averaged 232.
Samantha Santoro bowled a 300
during the League Championships!
"Throughout the tourney, she was very relaxed and willing to listen to any directions I gave her,'' Ephrata coach Sean Garman said. "She had an awesome day."
To reach the semifinals, Santoro rolled 653 and 656 series for sixth place, with the top 11 moving to the semi round.
The top five bowlers, who were seeded according to their semifinal three-game totals, moved into the finals with Santoro seeded first with her 813.
In the final one-game stepladder round, the fifth seed, Josh Stegman of Cocalico, was defeated by fourth seed, Garden Spot's Chadd Rudy, 193-171. Rudy was then beaten by third seed Todd Sigeti of Warwick, 255-226.
Second seed Casey Fazio of Garden Spot defeated Sigeti, 214-180, to set up the finale against Santoro.
The match began with Fazio missing two splits, then throwing a triple to pull the match to within four pins by the fifth frame, Santoro's 97 to Fazio's 93.
Santoro threw a triple, and Fazio countered with a double, setting up the final frame.
Santoro finished first, rolling a spare and nine count for 199, which meant that Fazio needed at least two strikes in the final frame. A split ended his bid for the title at 177.
More than 100 spectators cheered on the bowlers. The competition was such that it took a 214 average to make the semifinals and a 226 average to make the finals.
The L-L Team Championships will be held Thursday at Clearview Lanes, beginning at 9 a.m.
L-L CHAMPIONSHIPS SEMIFINALISTS
Following are bowlers who qualified for the semifinals, based on their six-game totals after the preliminary two rounds in the morning.
1. Josh Stegeman (Coc) 1,381; 2. Andrew Bender (McC) 1,355; 3. Casey Fazio (GS) 1,354; 4. Chadd Rudy (GS) 1,326; 5. David Gerhart (MT) 1,310; 6. Samantha Santoro (Eph) 1,309; 7. Eric Dombach (CV) 1,308; 8. Quentin Boyden (LC) 1,304; 9. Todd Sigeti (W) 1,290; 10. Anthony Wishard (Col) 1,287; 11. Zachary Sweigart (Coc) 1,285.
SEMIFINAL RESULTS
Top five advance to finals.
1. Samantha Santoro (Eph) 813; 2. Casey Fazio (GS) 721; 3. Todd Sigeti (W) 706; 4. Chadd Rudy (GS) 682; 5. Josh Stegeman (Coc) 679; 6. Eric Dombach (CV) 657; 7. David Gerhart (MT) 632; 8. Anthony Wishard (Col) 592; 9. Andrew Bender (McC) 589; 10. Quentin Boyden (LC) 565; 11. Zachary Sweigart (Coc) 488.
FINALS
Stepladder Format
Rudy d. Stegman, 193-171; Sigeti d. Rudy 255-226; Fazio d. Sigeti, 214-180; Santoro d. Fazio, 199-177.
We here at www.ephratamounts.com are proud sponsors of the Dodgeball for Diabetes tournament.