Carson bowling wins another title

The "550" rule couldn't stop the Carson Senator bowling club from claiming its seventh straight High Desert Interscholastic Association title.

Since Northern Nevada high school teams have been competing in bowling, Carson has never lost and kept that streak alive on Wednesday in the section finals at Reno's Grand Sierra Resort. The two league champions, Galena and Carson face each other, with Carson winning 29-16.

It was the second closest match that Carson has ever had since it has ever been competing. Two years ago in the finals, Carson beat Manogue 25-20.

Each match consists of three series of three games in which three competitors each bowl one game. In an effort to allow other schools to be more competitive with Carson, the Association implemented a rule in which the three bowlers in each series couldn't have a total average above 550.

While the rule forced Carson to juggle its lineup and prevented from always being able to use its best bowlers, Carson was still able to win the title. But it was close to Galena as the match was still in doubt going into the last series of three games, with Carson leading 18-12.

"It was a lot closer than what it sounded like," said Carson's Gold Dust West bowling center manager and team advisor Bill Baker. "It wasn't the best performance of the season, but they bowled well enough to win."

The 10 bowlers that finished the season for Carson were: Stephen Gall, Will Morrison, Tami Conn, Bryan Byrne, Katie Mandoki, Brad Mustafa, Michael Montiel, Joe Bob Johnson and Jared Wells.

Among the highlights against Galena were Byrne rolling a 235, 213 and 193 for a 641 series, Mandoki rolling a 213, Wells rolling a 226 and Conn rolling a 200.

Carson also swept the high average, high series and high game honors for the season. Byrne had the high average with 202 and the high series with 717 and Montiel had the high game with 275 for the boys.

For the girls, Conn had high average (178), high series (654) and high game (254). Mustafa also averaged over 200 for the season.

Despite those honors, Carson didn't have any among the top of six bowlers - three boys and three girls - who were named to the all-section teams, so Carson was also shut out from the Male Bowler and Female Bowler of the Year honors. "It's kind of hard to believe," Baker said. "It's kind of disappointing."