By REID ENGLISH
Special to the Statesman Journal

March 3, 2008

The Sprague High School girls bowling team nearly made the state tournament a year ago.

After earning the school's first girls state appearance this season, they made the most of it with a third-place finish Feb. 23-24 at Valley Lanes in Beaverton.

Sprague's finish was the highest by four Salem-Keizer teams at state, which involved 16 boys and 16 girls teams that qualified Jan. 26-27 in district competition.

"I knew the girls could do it," said Mike Grenya, in his third year as coach. "They settled down and had a great Sunday (second day). Last year, we just missed when we finished fourth at district. We had just three inexperienced girls."

Sprague was 12th after the opening day that included 32 games of qualifying. In the double elimination finals, Sprague defeated four opponents before losing to eventual champion Grants Pass, 402-365. Each match includes two games of Baker format, which involves five bowlers rolling two frames apiece.

In the losers bracket, Sprague defeated Rex Putnam 382-284 and then lost to Hidden Valley of Grants Pass, 467-327. Grants Pass beat Hidden Valley for the title.

District champion McNary, coached by Kathy Kaplan, finished seventh. McKay, coached by Rick Satter, was 11th. One of McKay's wins was against Hidden Valley.

Sprague's bowlers at state were seniors Kylie Morgan and Amy Salter, junior Kelsey Shepherd, sophomore Katelynn Golden and freshman Anna Leach. Shepherd and McNary's Chelsey Natividad earned all-state honors based on a scoring system that awards points for strikes and spares.

Other McNary team members were seniors Aymee Narvaez, Piper Watson and Jessica Aikman; sophomores Andrea Free and Stacey Montoya and freshmen Jocee Freeman and Keysha Zandol.

McKay's state bowlers were Kimmie Satter, Krissy Voyles, Jennifer Roberts, Hannah Hartley. Jamie Parson and Sarah Leonard.

In the boys competition, Centennial of Gresham was first and North Medford second. West Albany was fourth and Sprague 15th.