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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

VESTAVIA HILLS – The Thompson Warriors are rolling their way on to the state bowling championship next week after earning qualification spots at the South Regional championship on Jan. 27 and 28 at Vestavia Bowl in Vestavia Hills.

Thompson’s girls dominated over the course of the two-day, double elimination bracket, going 3-0 to win first place in the regional. The Warriors boys won their first two game to reach the finals, but after losing in the matchup for the No. 1 seed, grabbed the No. 2 seed in the consolation finals.

The girls started out their day on Monday with a commanding win over the Mary G. Montgomery Vikings. Thompson secured a 1,174-970 victory to reach the semifinals.

From there, the Warriors put together an even better performance with 1,238 pins, the most of any girls team in the bracket competition. Dothan could only muster 895 on its end, sending Thompson to the finals to face the rival Hoover Buccaneers.

Warriors bowlers dominated the first-day leaderboards. Emma Roberson and Amil Smith had two of the top six series in Class 6A/7A with scores of 345 for Roberson and 314 for Smith.

Roberson also had the third-best single game score with 178 as well as the eighth-best score with 167 while Lila Aikman came in sixth with 173.

The finals between Thompson and Hoover were much closer as some of the best bowlers in the region squared off. Roberson led the way for the Warriors with 213 pins in her traditional round as part of the Baker format match, a number that moved her up to third in the best single game standings.

That helped the Warriors defeat the Bucs 1,288-1,205 and book their spot in the state championship as the No. 1 seed coming out of the south.

As for the boys, Thompson also battled Mary G. Montgomery in the opening round. Their matchup was a bit tighter than the girls but the Warriors still walked away with a 1,481-1,341 win to advance to the semifinals.

Thompson then matched up with Stanhope Elmore and completely dominated the Mustangs. The Warriors posted 1,547 pins on the scoreboard, defeating 13-1 Stanhope Elmore by 321 points as it could only offer up 1,226 pins on its end.

On day one, Ryan Lloyd posted a single-game score of 226, which was the fourth-best round in the south regional on that day. He also had the best series of the Warriors, earning 405 pins to secure sixth-place on that leaderboard, just one pin ahead of Xander Adelberg’s 404 pins.

That sealed a finals matchup between 27-1 Vestavia Hills and Thompson for the No. 1 seed in the boys South Regional.

Both teams brought their A-game in the finals, but the Rebels just eked out a 1,631-1,586 win to clinch the top seed and send the Warriors down to the consolation bracket to play for the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds.

Thompson met up once again with Stanhope Elmore, which won a pair of matches over Baker and Dothan to clinch a top-three seed. The Warriors were once again dominant with their best score of the entire tournament, defeating the Mustangs by 288 with a final score of 1,605-1,317.

Lloyd continued to roll in the Tuesday games and posted a single-game score of 254 to earn the best score of any South Regional boys player. His score of 226 from Monday still ranked as the 10th-best score.

Joshua Proleau earned fourth and eighth place in the single-game standings with Tuesday scores of 246 and 231.

Lloyd and Adelberg were named to the boys All-Tournament Team while Roberson and Smith represented Thompson on the girls All-Tournament Team.

The Warriors now advance to the Class 6A/7A state championships on Feb. 3-4 at Bowlero Bowling Center in Mobile. They were originally set for Jan. 30-31 but were postponed along with the regional championships due to snow in the southern half of the state.

Thompson will now await the results of the North Regional championships on Jan. 29-30 at Spare Time Bowling Center in Trussville to see who it will face in the team competitions.