Laurence Manning co-ed bowling team wins SCISA state championship

           Manning – Jay Atkins is either going to have to start wearing rings on his toes or doubling up on his fingers the next time a Laurence Manning Academy bowling team wins a SCISA state title.

           That’s because the Swampcats recently won their 10^th state championship under Atkins’ guidance. This time it was the co-ed team that was victorious as it rolled to an easy victory over Porter-Gaud.

           It was the third state championship for Laurence Manning in the co-ed portion of the state tournament. The other seven have been boys championships.

           “It’s unbelievable when you think about it,” Atkins said of coaching 10 state championship teams, including both a boys and co-ed champion in one season. “It’s very rare that a coach wins 10 state championships in any sport.

“It hasn’t been a case of us being lucky. We’ve had a lot of skill on those teams.”

Laurence Manning dominated in a fashion in which it never had this year though. The Swampcats won the championship round of the state championships on February 5 at Royal Z Lanes in Columbia with a score of 566. They defeated second-place Porter-Gaud by 120 strokes.

“Usually, it’s been within 50 or 60 strokes,” Atkins said. “We’ve never dominated like this before.”

Laurence Manning was almost as dominant in the preliminary round that determines the four teams that bowl in the championship round. The Swampcats won that by 102 strokes.

“It was just a very good day for us,” Atkins said. “But we’d been having good days the last few weeks. ”

The 6-team roster is made up four boys and two girls. The ladies are Sydnie Vohs and Charlotte Baker, while the guys are Colby Hasty, Caleb Baker, Jason Skinner and Nathan Stewart.

Atkins said what has made this group so dominant is the fact that each team member takes bowling very seriously.

“We’ve got the talent,” said Atkins, who is assisted by Brad Vohs and Amy Vohs. “These are kIds that bowl every Saturday morning in the Saturday morning leagues. They’ve got all of that experience coming in. Most of them have been bowling since they were five or six years old.”

           The format used in team bowling is that a team bowls three games with five bowlers participating in each game. In each game, each bowler bowls two of the 10 frames. The bowler who rolls in the first frame will roll the sixth frame, the next bowler frames 2 and 7, and so on.

           In the co-ed competition, at least one of the bowlders has to be a girl. Atkins said his strategy in both rounds of the championship was to use Charlotte Baker in the first game with Sydnie Vohs filling the girls slot in the second and third games.

           In the individual competition held on February 12 at Gamecock Lanes in Sumter, Stewart was the top finisher for Laurence Manning. He finished third with a 3-game score of 451. Lee Academy’s Gavin Barfield won with a score of 471 and was followed by Mead Hall’s Michael Dean Bryce at 458.

           Caleb Baker, the only senior on the team, finished fifth with a score of 436.

           Laurence Manning has gone 47-1 in dual matches over the last two years.

           BOYS BASKETBALL

           The Laurence Manning boys basketball team had three players selected to the All-Region team for SCISA Region 2-AAAA. They were senior Josiah Burson, senior Thomas Sumpter and eighth-grader Shane Goines.

            Burson averaged 13.3 points er game while grabbing 7.0 rebounds to go with 2.2 assists and 1.0 steals. Sumpter average 7.3 points, 2.2 assists, 1.0 steals and 1.8 rebounds.

           Goines was the Swampcats’ leading scorer with a 15.7 average. Goines connected on 67 of 204 3-point shots, a 32.8 shooting percentage. Goines was 59 of 66 from the free throw line for percentage of 89.3.

           The Swampcats finished the season with a 16-10 record. They were a No. 4 seed in their part of the bracket in the state tournament. They suffered a heartbreaking 57-56 loss to No. 5 seed Heathwood Hall in the first round.

           The Swampcats led by as many as seven in the second quarter. A late run by Heathwood cut the score to 29-27 at halftime. LMA pushed the lead back out to nine in the third quarter only to have just a 46-42 lead entering the fourth quarter.

A 3-point basket by Heathwood’s Chip Ravenell at the 5:49 mark of the final stanza cut the lead to 46-45. A steal and layup by Burson pushed the lead back up to three before Ravenell scored again. Laurence Manning eighth-grader Scoop Dennis hit a jumper from the left corner and Sumpter scored on a fast break layup to make it 52-47 with 3:33 to go.

           Layups by Kamari Hunter and Nic Nichols set the stage for Ravenell to hit a trey with 2:06 remaining to give Heathwood a 54-52 lead.

           Nichols followed up a miss to make it 56-52 with just over a minute left. Dennis hit another jumper to slice the lead to 56-54 with 46 seconds to go. LMA didn’t foul until 18 seconds were left. Sophomore Henry Morris missed both free throws, but the Highlanders grabbed the rebound. Hunter was fouled with 11 seconds remaining and hit one of two to make it 57-54.

The Swampcats had a chance to tie the game when Sumpter was fouled while hitting a layup with 3.8 seconds. However, the free throw didn’t go down and Heathwood grabbed the rebound and ran out the clock.

           “We all miss free throws. That free throw didn’t cause us to lose the game,” said longtime LMA boys head coach Will Epps. “The others we missed before that were just as important.”

           Epps, however, said he bore a great responsibility for the loss.

“We had poor game management the entire game on my part,” he said.

Goines led Laurence Manning with 18 points while Dennis had 14. Sumpter finished with 11 and Burson had 10.

           “I love them. They’re great kids. They’ve been around awhile,” Epps said of his senior class, which also included Mason Nivens, Noah Tanner, Zach Durant and Kamari Lewis. “Two of them are going to play college football (Burson and Sumpter to Erskine College) and that’s good for them. The ones who don’t, I now they’re going to grow up to be good men and be successful.”

GIRLS BASKETBALL

The Laurence Manning girls basketball team had three players selected to the All-Region team. They were senior Aubrey Coker and sophomore Lyza Pricklemyer and sophomore Ashley Rae Hodge.

           Prickleymyer and Hodge were the two leading scorers for the Lady ‘Cats.

           Laurence Manning finished with an 11-13 record in their first season with Epps as the head coach.

           They made the playoffs as a No. 5 seed and lost a heartbreaker to fifth-seeded Porter-Gaud in the first round, falling by a 41-39 count.

           The other seniors are Karly Bjork, Savannah Feagin, Carlyn Hill and Hailey Truett.