By JESSA PEASE / Staff Writer

PELHAM— In its first year of being formed, Pelham High School’s girls bowling team made it to the inaugural AHSAA State Bowling Championships held at Oak Mountain Lanes Jan. 28-29.

“It’s exciting for them. I’m happy they have done the work to get here,” said Coach Perry Robinson. “We’ve had really good performances, we’ve learned a lot as we’ve gone along and it’s been a group effort to get us here. It’s fun to watch them do what they do.”

Sixteen girls teams and 16 boys teams from across the state participated in the two-day state tournament. On day one, the teams bowled three games each for their placement in the brackets.

In the first two games, the Lady Panthers bowled a 543 and a 577, ranking them as No. 15 in the seeding. Pelham moved up to the No. 14 spot its third game when the five girls bowled 695.

Morgan Mullinax had the top scores in all three games, bowling a 179 in the last round. Robinson said that Mullinax has helped lead the team and is the most consistent bowler for the Panthers.

“It’s really exciting because I have been bowling since I was 6 years old, and I am just glad that I can have an experience like this,” Mullinax said. “(The team) seems really excited because they’ve never bowled before and we made it this far.”

In a non-school related bowling tournament, Mullinax previously placed third in state.

The next day, the Panthers returned to compete in the single elimination portion of the tournament. The team was seeded to play Hewitt-Trussville High School, which was ranked No. 3 the previous day.

The Lady Panthers fought a hard battle, but ultimately were out-bowled by 169 pins. Pelham’s final score was 1,173 to Hewitt-Trussville’s 1,342.

Hewitt-Trussville went on only to fall to Sparkman High School in the second round. The Sparkman High School Senators went on to win the 2016 AHSAA Bowling Champions.

The Panther bowling team is comprised of Karleanna Abshire, Carly Edinger, Emma Hammett, Lexi Johnson, Kaytlyn Maddox, Dalton Merrill, Keyanna Moore and Mullinax.