Cascade’s Paris Smith places 2nd at 4A state bowling tourney

Published 1:30 am Thursday, February 1, 2018

UNIVERSITY PLACE — Cascade’s Paris Smith took home second place in the individual portion of the 4A state bowling tournament Thursday, bowling a 1,173 six-game series with a high score of 228 in her opening game.

Smith, a junior, bowled three straight games over 200 to open the tournament and build a 57-point lead over eventual winner Kristina Harris of Puyallup Rogers, but three sub-200 games from Smith to close the day left the door open for Harris, who bowled a tournament-high 257 in game No. 5 to climb to the top of the leaderboard.

“The pressure got to her a little bit. This was her first time bowling that high in the tournament. … It’s kind of a combination of pressure and fatigue,” Cascade bowling coach Ron Hicks said. “She really battled hard.”

This was Smith’s third apperance in the Class 4A individual state tournament. Her second place finish this season was a 26-spot improvement from last year.

“She just puts a lot of work into her game,” Hicks said. “She puts in a lot of time at the lanes.”

Teammate Jessika Brambach placed 40th with an 845 series.

Jackson High School’s Sam Mutolo placed 20th (987), Breanna Tolbert 22nd (976) and Molly Jo Myers 34th (899).

In the team portion of the tournament, Cascade sits in sixth place with a score of 4,474 at the end day one, which consists of six five-game series with each game rolled by a different bowler.

Day two consists of 14 baker games, which requires each team to have five bowlers alternate frames through a single game.

The Bruins are a long-shot to contend for a state title at this point but hope to crack the top three.

“It’s gonna be hard, but we all think we can do it if we can get hot,” Hicks said.