At Curtis High School, the pins are going down.
And so is the competition in girls’ bowling.
Led by three finishers in the top 10, including winner Molly Lorfeld, the Vikings ran away from the field at the West Central District III girls bowling championships at Pacific Lanes in South Tacoma on Saturday.
The South Puget Sound League champions won in 4A with 3,355 pins – well ahead of Puyallup (3,117), Cascade of Everett (3,043) and Emerald Ridge (2,908), which saw its run of four district titles end.
With 3,348 pins, Timberline captured its first 3A/2A district title, ending Wilson’s two-year reign. The Rams, who won three state titles from 2006-08, rallied late to finish third to extend their streak of state-tournament appearances to seven seasons.
For Curtis, after spending the past half-decade watching Emerald Ridge rule the lanes, now is their time to make a run at their first state bowling championship.
“These girls are extraordinarily talented, obviously,” Curtis coach Lynn Tucker said. “But it’s been a motivating factor to have Emerald Ridge part of the league.”
After finishing second to Emerald Ridge in the WCD tournament last season, the Vikings went undefeated in league play in 2012-13 – and continued their torrid yet business-like showing Saturday.
A showing that almost welcomed perfection.
Lorfeld, the team’s anchor bowler, started her first game with 11 consecutive strikes – and needed one more to post a perfect 300 game.
“Everyone kind of stopped in the ninth and 10th frames to see if I would do it,” Lorfeld said. “I’ve never had that many people watching me before.”
Her last shot hit the pocket square, but left a solid 4-pin for a career-best 299 game (her previous best was 268). The WCD single-game record is 300, set by Cascade of Everett’s Sarah Elliott in 2008.
Lorfeld’s three-game series total was 619 for medalist honors. Sheri Hill (569) was fourth, and Autumn Reid (531) was 10th for the Vikings.
“After the girls went through the first half of league undefeated, they realized, ‘We are as good on paper as we thought we should be,’ ” Tucker said. “But they are not cocky at all, but very mature about it. They don’t want to sit back on their laurels.”
Everett’s Candice Goldfinch had the highest series at Pacific Lanes with a 656 in 3A/2A (games of 222-248-186).
Todd Milles: 253-597-8442 todd.milles@ thenewstribune.com blog.thenewstribune.com/preps @ManyHatsMilles
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