L-P bowlers are solid at Festival of Lights Tournament

by Eric Keppeler
Lewiston Porter Sentinel, January 6, 2007

The Lewiston-Porter boys and girls bowling teams both enjoyed good performances at last week’s annual Festival of Lights Holiday Tournament at Thruway Lanes in Cheektowaga.

That tournament is a good way to keep from getting rusty over the holiday break, while at the same time serving as a measuring stick against some of the top teams in Western New York. And the Lancers had to like what they saw.

The boys as a team finished second overall in the 39-team field, while the girls got the highest overall individual series from senior Tabitha Dominguez. As a team, the ladies wound up 11th of 22 with six new bowlers on their roster.

“I’m definitely pleased,” said Lew-Port bowling coach Mike Kankolenski. “The boys never gave up and they almost won the whole thing. They kept coming back and they had a shot at the end. The girls also performed very well, especially since we have so many new bowlers. They weren’t used to going six games, but they did a great job.”

The boys typically are in the top 10 in this competitive tournament, according to Kankolenski – frequently in the top five, in fact. But the second-place finish was their best in a while.

The only team to finish ahead of the Lancers was Section V power Gates-Chili, which outscored Lew-Port 6,146 pins to 6,093. The Lancers won the final game 1,074 pins to 1,017 to cut the final margin to 53 pins, but that was as close as they got after Gates-Chili jumped out to a big early lead.

“I’m not surprised that we finished so well,” Kankolenski said. “Our scores were good, and I thought we were going to catch them. They had a terrific first set (beating Lew-Port 1,180 to 1,040), but we beat them in almost every other game. Our guys did great – as a team, everyone averaged over 200 for the tournament.”

Senior Zane Tester was the top Lancer, finishing with 1,317 and the second-highest total overall. Freshman Mike Grannis cracked the top 10 with 1,253 and senior Jeremy Janese was able to shrug off one bad game to finish with a 1,206 total.

Dominguez had a little extra motivation for her performance. Her older sister, Sabrina, shot a tournament-record 1,292 in 2000 – and Tabitha definitely was gunning for her sister’s mark.

“She really had hoped to get it,” Kankolenski said. “She shot a 174 in the last game, but what really hurt her chances were a couple of tough splits. But she really did an excellent job.”

The next highest finisher for the Lancers was Savannah Zientara, who finished with a 1,098.

“The girls did well,” Kankolenski said. “For a lot of them, this was the first time they were in a major tournament like this one, and they all responded very well.”

Now resuming their Niagara Frontier League schedule, the Lancers host Kenmore West at 4 p.m. Tuesday at Frontier Lanes. They then go to Niagara-Wheatfield on Thursday.