Tullahoma High School Girls’ Bowling team was in Smyrna for the State bowling tournament last week. The Lady ‘Cats went 2-1 losing in the championship game to the 11-time defending champions Hardin County.
In the quarterfinal matchup Tullahoma beat Bradley Central 17-10. The Lady Wildcats began the match trailing after losing the first American 10-pin game 5-3. Emilee Hewitt, Rachael Mitchell and Haylei Byrne won the 3 points for Tullahoma. Hewitt scored 161, Mitchell 169 and Byrne rolled a 170. The team lost the bonus points for total pin fall by 15 pins. The Lady ‘Cats picked it up for the second game and won 6 of the 8 possible points. Hewitt, Mitchell, Byrne and Christina Petty each won individual points. Olivia Williams and Elizabeth Prater helped Hewitt, Mitchell, Byrne and Petty total 908 pins in the game to win the 2 bonus points. Mitchell bowled a 195 in the second 10-pin game, which was the best of anyone in the match. Going into the Baker games Tullahoma led 9-7.
The order for the Lady Wildcats in the first Baker game went Williams, Petty, Hewitt, Byrne then Mitchell. They dominated the first Baker game 193-125, grabbing 3 points and making it 12-7 with 8 total points left in the match. The girls lost the second Baker game 165-158. Bradley Central used two substitutes in the game. The bonus points for total pins between the two games were won by Tullahoma with 351 to Bradley’s 290. Before tallying the total pin fall bonus points for the entire match, the Lady Wildcats had secured a win. They did win the bonus points, knocking down 2142 pins in the match.
The win moved the Lady ‘Cats into the semifinals against Creek Wood for a chance to play in the Championship. Tullahoma again had a hard time in the first 10-pin game. They trailed 2-6 afterwards. Petty and Hewitt won the 2 points for the team. Petty rolled a 148 and Hewitt a 157. The second game went much better for the Wildcats, winning 5.5 of the 8 points. Byrne, Hewitt and Petty all scored a point for the team. Prater grabbed 0.5 points by tying with her opponent at 158 pins. Byrne had the best Tullahoma round with 194. Hewitt scored a 153 and Petty rolled a 179. Mitchell had a good round with 184, but unfortunately her opponent rolled a 189. The close loses from Tullahoma gave them the easy win of bonus points in the game to go into the Baker games down 8.5-7.5.
The Lady Wildcats owned the Red Hawks in the Baker games, totaling 70 more pins. Williams, Hewitt, Petty, Mitchell and Byrne scored 160 in the first game to take 3 points and the first lead of the match for the Lady ‘Cats at 10.5-8.5. They switched their order to Byrne, Prater, Hewitt, Mitchell and Petty before rolling a 197 beating the Red Hawks 143. The dominating win gave Tullahoma the match win. They knocked down 2200 pins in the match. The win had the Lady Wildcats awaiting the 10-time defending champion Tigers.
In the first year under head coach Derek Swiger Tullahoma’s Girls’ bowling team made it to the State Championship. Hardin County was 18-0 prior to the match, and they have not lost a match since the 2013 State Championship. Tullahoma lost the Championship 25-2. Both of those points were scored by Mitchell in the American 10-pin games. The first game she rolled the team-best score of the match with a 218. She bowled a 180 in the second game. Petty rolled a 175 in the first game and Hewitt a 180, but unfortunately Hardin County had three girls bowl over 200. Then the Tigers scored over 200 in each Baker game to secure the win.
This was the first finals appearance for the Lady Wildcats. Senior Rachael Mitchell also finished 19 in the individual State Tournament this season.  On way to the State tournament the Lady ‘Cats racked up some hardware being the District 6 Champions and the Regional Runner-up.Â
