East girls, Southeast's Holmes claim titles

The Wichita East girls continued the dominance of Wichita area bowling on Friday by winning the Class 6A state bowling tournament at Northrock Lanes.

The Blue Aces overcame a 49-pin deficit heading into the final round to edge runnerup Campus by 26 pins with a team score of 2,345.  Campus finished with a 2,319 score and Wichita Heights was third at 2,266.

The state championship was the first for East High's girls, but the sixth in nine years for a City League school and the eighth in nine years for a Wichita area school.

The Blue Aces were led by Ashley Engram, who finished third with a 648 series, while teammates Ashlynn Herzberg (641) and Larissa Lawrie were fifth and 17th overall, respectively.

Mackenzie Saulnier of Olathe Northwest won the individual state title with a 707 series, while Ariana Perez of Maize with second at 663.

In the boys' competition, Derick Holmes of Wichita Southeast came from behind to win the individual title with a 739 series - 23 pins in front of second-place Joe Hornbaker of Hutchinson.  Holmes was 86 pins behind Hornbaker after the first round, but caught him after the second round and then caught tournament leader Travis Sixta after the third.

Olathe North won the boys' team title with a score of 2,674 - 43 pins in front of second-place Campus.