Brandon Flora of St. X took home the prize for Metro Louisville’s top male Bowler of the Year during the Courier-Journal Kentuckiana Sports Awards. 6/14/16
Behind St. Xavier High School senior Brandon Flora and Mercy Academy senior Breanna Elkin, Louisville bowlers swept the singles titles Thursday at the State Championships at Collins Eastland in Lexington, Kentucky.
Flora capped an outstanding high school career, beating Boyle County’s Cameron Walker 246-211 in the championship match. Flora also won the state title as a freshman and was the state runner-up last year. He failed to qualify for the event as a sophomore.
Flora rolled games of 214, 220 and 288 to reach the semifinals and then posted a 268 and a 259 in the semifinals to earn the No. 1 seed in the stepladder finals.
Pleasure Ridge Park’s Clayton Cox finished third after falling to Walker 269-226. Trinity’s Noah Hall finished seventh after reaching the semifinals.
Elkin beat Boone County’s Kara Strong 227-173 to take the girls title. Elkin opened with scores of 266, 190 and 237 and then posted scores of 212 and 220 in the semifinals to take the No. 1 seed in the stepladder finals.
PRP’s Kayla Payne, who beat Elkin in last week’s Region Three final, finished fourth in the State Championships. She lost to Strong 211-170 in the opening match of the stepladder finals.
The Southern team of Nathan Burnett and Dallas Derringer won the unified team title, beating Highlands 191-169. The Trojans beat the Butler team of Chance Greathouse and Michael Turner 155-142 in the semifinals.
The other team championships will be decided Friday, with the girls starting at 7:50 a.m. and the boys at 1:35 p.m.
Jason Frakes can be reached at (502) 582-4046 and jfrakes@courier-journal.com.