Harley Kriess of the Butler girls bowling team won the WPIBL Singles championship Thursday in Belle Vernon. Kriess averaged 206 over three games of qualifying and finished in a three-way tie for fourth overall. She defeated two other bowlers in a roll-off to claim the fourth seed entering the stepladder finals and defeated three opponents on her way to the title. Kriess had the second-highest game of the day during qualifying with a 245.
Harley defeated #5-seed Mareana Pilyih of Plum 190-185 in the Quarterfinals. She topped #1-seed Kali Siegel of Norwin 179-158, then defeated #2-seed Leah McCandless of Burrell 178-174 in the championship match.
Kriess is the first Butler bowler to win a WPIBL Singles title, an event that began in 2016.
Butler’s Kelsee McConnell finished 12th overall. just 23 pins from bowling in the stepladder finals. Natalie Coughenour finished 20th overall out of 72 bowlers. All three are joined by freshman Makenzie Zimmerman in qualifying for the Pennsylvania State Western Regional Singles championship March 11th.