Surprise package
BUTLER TWP — Once she reached 11 years old, Harley Kriess dropped out of Butler’s Saturday morning junior bowling league.
She never escaped the sport entirely, though. Bowling was all around her.
“My parents (Matt and Aby Kriess) bowl in a couples league at Meridian, my grandparents bowl, my uncle ... our family goes out and bowls together every once in a while,” the Butler senior said. “I just stopped bowling regularly.”
That all changed her freshman year in high school, when Kriess joined the Butler girls bowling team.
“My dad knew the coaches and I figured I’d try it,” Kriess recalled. “I averaged around 120 my freshman season. I was horrible.”
Not anymore.
Kriess is averaging 180 this season and recently tipped the 72-bowler field at the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Bowling League (WPIBL) Girls Individual Championships at AMF Belle Vernon Lanes.
She became the first Butler bowler to win a WPIBL Singles title. The event began in 2016.
She bowled two games above 180, then rolled a 245 — the tourney’s second-highest game during qualifying — to enter the stepladder portion of the tournament. Kriess tied with two other bowlers for the fourth-seed and won a roll-off to claim that position.
“They bowled two extra frames together and Harley won out,” Butler bowling coach Bob Cupp said. “From there, she jumped right into the stepladder competition. There was no delay, she didn’t have to wait around for an hour or so, which sometimes happens.
“That roll-off for position definitely helped her in that sense.”
Kriess defeated No. 5 seed Mareana Pilyih of Plum in the quarterfinals, 190-185. She then topped No. 1 seed Kali Siegel of Norwin, 1279-158, in the semifinals before edging Leah McCandless of Burrell, 178-174, in the championship match.
“She had to match her opponent shot-for-shot in two of those games,” Cupp said. “That takes competitiveness and clutch performance. Harley trailed going into the 10th frame of the final match. She had to mark to force the other girl’s hand.
“Harley left the 7-pin, covered, then bowled a strike. That forced (McCandless) to have to mark in the 10th. She left the 3-6-10, chopped it, and Harley had the championship.”
Not exactly something she was expecting.
“Not at all,” Kriess said. “That was a complete surprise. I was just hoping to qualify for regionals. Winning the thing was never on my mind.”
But she went from that 120 average to league champion.
“That’s a big jump,” Kriess said, grinning.
She credited assistant coach Jim Hepler with “calming me down” during the stepladder portion of the tourney.
“He sort of talked me through my shots,” she said.
Kriess is considering attending college at either Michigan State or South Florida. She plans to major in speech pathology. Neither school has a bowling team.
“Michigan State used to have a team, but not anymore. I wish they did,” Kriess said.
Kriess will join teammates Natalie Coughenour, Kelsee McConnell and Makenzie Zimmerman at the Western Regional Singles Championships March 11 at North Versailles. The boys Western Regional is this weekend. Only the top 12 out of 74 bowlers at each event advance to the state tournament March 18-19.
“What Harley did, winning the WPIBL tournament and beating such a strong field ... That was a special thing,” Cupp said.
