Lafayette’s Avery Reeves wins girls’ state bowling singles championship
A year after finishing as state runner-up, Lafayette’s Avery Reeves won the 2023 KHSAA Girls’ State Bowling Singles Championship on Wednesday in Louisville battling from the finals’ third seed to claim the crown.
“Last year was motivation going into this year because I wanted to win more,” Reeves said with a laugh. “I had a lot of support behind me, so that made it even better.”
Reeves, a senior who will bowl in college for Midway, averaged 202 through three first-round and two semifinals games of the state championships at Kingpin Lanes in Jeffersontown. She delivered some of her best scores in the win-or-go-home stepladder format of the finals.
A year ago, Reeves entered the finals as the No. 1 seed, meaning the other competitors had to battle it out to get to her in a make-or-break final game. This year, Reeves had to earn her crown from the bottom rung of the three-game finals stepladder as the No. 3 seed.
“Being a three seed, I got to keep bowling, whereas they (the other seeds) were sitting and not bowling, and I think that gave me an advantage,” Reeves said.
Reeves defeated Eastern’s Taylor Sams 209-179 in the first finals eliminator, topped Henry Clay’s Kendall Craig 236-158 in the second and knocked off finals top seed Abigail Hamilton of Graves County 200-152 in the third and final game for the singles championship.
Hamilton had 1,067 pins over her first five games to Craig’s 1,051, Reeves’ 1,010 and Taylor’s 956 to establish their finals seeds.
“The competition was actually probably tougher leading up to it, but it was a senior that won last year, and she was a senior this year,” Lafayette Coach Paul Shafer said. “Experience makes a difference. She was battle-hardened, I guess you’d say.”
The Kentucky High School Athletic Association’s state bowling championships began Monday with the unified competition, continued Tuesday with boys’ singles and team tournaments and concluded Wednesday with the girls’ events. Bowling has been a KHSAA championship sport since 2012.
North Bullitt’s Dakota Waskom won the boys’ singles title. Trinity (Louisville) won the boys’ team title. Graves County won the girls’ team title.
Reeves is the second female Lexington bowler to claim a singles crown (Bryan Station’s Crystal Land, 2013). Paul Laurence Dunbar swept the boys’ singles (Broox Golden) and team titles last year.
The Tates Creek girls’ team, and singles bowlers Micah Jones of Frederick Douglass, Charlie Smith of Dunbar and Kaci Sapp of Tates Creek joined Reeves and Craig in this year’s competitions. Lexington Catholic’s Maddie Blankenship and Brody Rogers reached the quarterfinals of Monday’s unified tournament.
KHSAA State Bowling Championships
At Kingpin Lanes, Jeffersontown
GIRLS’ SINGLES
State champion: Avery Reeves, Lafayette; Runner-up: Abigail Hamilton, Graves County.
GIRLS’ TEAM
State champion: Graves County; Runner-up: Boyle County.
BOYS’ SINGLES
State champion: Dakota Waskom, North Bullitt; Runner-up: Connor Woosley, Trinity (Louisville).
BOYS’ TEAM
State champion: Trinity (Louisville); Runner-up: Montgomery County.
Complete results online: khsaa.org/2022-2023-state-region-bowling-results-entries/
This story was originally published February 9, 2023 at 8:27 AM.
