It wasn’t pretty by any stretch, but the Salem bowling team bounced back from a slow start in the morning to finish strong and win the Boys Gold Championship at the Show Mo Tournament hosted by Columbia.
Salem was the 7th seed out of 8 after the first 3 games for placement. The opened the bracket play with 2nd seed O’Fallon, and Salem held on to win 1001-999. Salem then beat Collinsville in the semifinals 1049-933 and then took down conference rival Freeburg in the finals 1082-1027. Collinsville beat Mount Vernon for 3rd with Mascoutah over Waterloo for 5th and Columbia beat O’Fallon for 7th.
Individually, Salem’s Silas Moats and Ryan Detering finished 7-8 with Rhett Detering 10th, Dom Winkler 20th and Keaton Gullion 29th. Mount Vernon was led by Brody Elliott who averaged over 223 and Travin Elliott over 222.
The Salem Lady Cats finished 3rd and with that finish helped secure the Team Cup title for Salem. The Lady Cats were the 4th seed after the morning and opened with a win over Mascoutah 896-839. The fell to eventual champion O’Fallon 840-762 and then beat Waterloo for 3rd 955-805. Salem’s Jaeda Rollinson shot 1225 and was the overall girls champion with Elena Vanhoutin and Olivia Paulson 19-20th respectively.
