Vero Beach girls claim first ever District 12 bowling title, state tournament berth
JENSEN BEACH — Monday was a series of firsts for the Vero Beach girls bowling program at Jensen Beach Bowl.
Grabbing the top seed in the morning heading into bracket play, Vero Beach lived up to their performance early in the day by downing Sebastian River, Sebring and Martin County in the championship bracket to earn the program's first district championship and bid to the state tournament.
Led by Angeli Atayde's 516 series, Vero Beach grabbed the top seed into bracket play over Sebring.
Martin County had to rally after losing to the Blue Streaks in the first round of the Baker matches and were able to defeat Sebastian River and got past Sebring in five sets that guaranteed their berth to the state tournament as a runner-up.
With the Tigers needing to defeat Vero Beach twice, Martin County gave it a run to force a deciding Baker game but Vero Beach's lineup of Atayde, Lilianna Hill, Skylar Cade, Katelyn Vargas and Jasmyne Williams got the job done with a 3-2 victory.
Both Vero Beach and Martin County will make up the field in the state championships at the Boardwalk Bowl in Orlando on Nov. 1-3.
Joining the two teams will be Port St. Lucie's Nancy Roberts, who for the second consecutive year was the top bowler for the morning session to earn a spot to the state tournament.
Roberts bowled a 255 game as part of her three-game series of 628 and will look to improve upon her tie for 30th at last year's state tournament.
Martin County's Emelia Koehler bowled a 568 series to take second and Sebring's Kassidy Ritenour was third with a 552 series and grabbed the final qualifying spot to state from the district.
District 12 bowling team qualifying totals
Vero Beach 1,862, Sebring 1,797, Martin County 1,762, Sebastian River 1,645, South Fork 1,586, Somerset College Prep 1,575, Jensen Beach 1,521
Individual qualifying series top 15
1. Nancy Roberts (PSL) 628, 2. Emelia Koehler (MC) 568, 3. Kassidy Ritenour (S) 552, 4. Angeli Atayde (VB) 516, 5. Giana Garofolo (PSL) 497, 6. Melody LaDisa (FPW) 471, 7. Emma Bordetsky (SCP) 461, 8. Abbi Pierro (TC) 452, 9. Avari Fitzpatrick (SF) 395, 10. Emily McLaughlin (MC) 385, 11. Lilianna Hill (VB) 379, 12. Skylar Cade (VB) 369, 13. Kalee DeShazo (S) 368, 14. Jorgiannah Marvin (S) 367, 15. Victoria Wehrberger (SR) 361
Bryan Cooney is a high school sports reporter at TCPalm, part of the USA TODAY Network. You can reach him at bcooney@gannett.com and also on Twitter at @Bryan_Cooney.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Vero Beach girls win first ever District 12 bowling title
