LOWER BURRELL — Tom Livingston knew what was coming — and couldn't help but put a smile on his face.

The Freeport High School bowling coach has perhaps the best male-female combination in the entire WPIBL, and both are underclassmen.

“Both of these kids grew up on bowling in the Saturday youth leagues here,” Livingston said of Wildlife Lanes, the Yellowjackets' home house.

Mark Livingston, his son, is a junior and averaging 220.06 through 18 games this season. He trails only senior Alex Smith (221.6) of Franklin Regional for the highest average in the league's Northeast Division.

Scott McIntire of Armstrong is the closest underclassmen to Livingston in terms of average in the division. He is carrying a 208.7.

“It's pretty close between me and Alex for high average,” Mark said. “I feel like I've got a shot at that.”

Julia Cummings, a freshman, is averaging 195.89 through 18 games for Freeport. She trails only Kristin Womeldorf, an Apollo-Ridge senior carrying a 212 average.

The next closest freshman to Cummings in average in the Northeast Division is Savannah Renwick of Kiski Area with a 133.27. The next closest underclassman in average is her Yellowjacket teammate, junior Amber Cepec, with a 168.

“I couldn't wait to bowl for this (high school) team,” Cummings said. “I was upset I couldn't bowl for them last year, but the rules don't allow you to bowl varsity as an eighth-grader.”

It's certainly not the talent-level that prevented Cummings from doing so. She won the prestigious Pepsi Junior Tournament in successive years at age 12 and 13. She's also placed second in the Gold Pin Tournament.

“Mark and Julia have done a lot of tournaments,” Coach Livingston said. “They've done Junior Nationals in Dallas and Detroit, so competition doesn't faze them at all.

“They work at their games. They bowl a lot during the week and they've been at it for years.”

Both have been competing in leagues — junior and/or travel — since the age of 9 or 10.

Mark has rolled a pair of 300-games. His second one — along with his career-high 836 series — occurred only two months ago in travel league play.

Averaging over 200 for the third straight season, he has yet to get through the high school regionals to compete in the state tournament.

“I'm hoping that happens this year. That's the goal,” he said.

“The big thing in this game is to keep a clear mind. You can't get flustered by a bad shot.”

Freeport's boys are 5-2 on the season. In a win over Armstrong a few days ago, Mark put together a 721 series with games of 237, 229 and 255.

The Yellowjacket girls are 7-0. Julia had a 597 series in the win over Armstrong, including games of 211 and 201.

“I bowl four or five times a week,” she said. “I need to get better at making my spares. I get a lot of strikes, so making those spares would increase my average.

“I think we've got a very good girls team. You never know, but I feel like we can go a long way.”

Julia's high game is 278. She's bowled a 715 series.

Mark and Julia both have hopes of bowling for college teams down the road.

“Just keep getting better,” Julia said. “You can always improve in this game.”