There is a saying in sports: “Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.”
In bowling, that can be cruelly and excruciatingly so.
After the past two weeks, Gavin Courtney is beginning to subscribe to that theory.
The Garden Spot senior, who is coming off a year where he captured all four postseason tournaments for Lancaster-Lebanon League bowlers, lost in the boys semifinals of the Eastern Pennsylvania Regional Bowling Championships Friday at Clearview Lanes.
Courtney did repeat as the L-L boys champion, but dropped his semifinal match last week at the District Three championships. He lost then and Friday despite being the top qualifier.
“I just wish I could get some of the breaks that I see other people get,” Courtney said. “I roll it the best I can. … Bowling’s a game of luck and obviously I’m not on the luck side right now.”
Courtney rolled a 236, but fell to No. 12 qualifier Tommy Rawa of Hatboro-Horsham, who won with a 246 after finishing with five straight strikes. Courtney lost 245-234 last week at districts.
Courtney’s disappointment can be echoed by L-L bowlers in general after only two managed to reach the 12-bowler modified bracket-style finals.
Elizabethtown’s Caylin Rotondo takes a shot against Hempfield during an L-L League bowling match at Clearview Lanes in Mount Joy on Friday Jan. 16, 2026.
CHRIS KNIGHT | Staff Photographer
He was joined by Elizabethtown junior Caylin Rotondo, who won the L-L girls title earlier this month. Both advance to next weekend’s Pennsylvania State High School Bowling Championships at Clearview and Leisure Lanes.
“Making my spares was most important; it always is in these tournaments,” said Rotondo, who qualified sixth in the girls event and was one of two to advance out of the opening-round quad matches before falling in the quarterfinals.
“I actually got to compete in the stepladder finals this time. That was a great experience for me because I never was in that before because I’m such a new bowler. … I just think it’s absolutely insane to qualify fifth out of 112.”
Rotondo totaled 1,053 pins in qualifying, which was led by Chambersburg’s Malia Briggs with 1,150 pins.
Briggs and girls No. 2 qualifier Izzabella Dixon of Middletown, who had 1,132 pins, earned byes into the semifinals, as did Courtney and Jackson Coy of Mechanicsburg on the boys side.
Interestingly enough, none of those four even reached the finals.
Coy lost in the semifinals when Council Rock South’s Matt Wenger, who qualified seventh, opened the 10th frame with a strike, despite nearly having a 4-7-10 split, and added two more strikes for a 224-223 win.
Wenger then defeated Rawa 257-223 in the boys final.
“We were talking that sometimes (qualifying first) isn’t necessarily an advantage,” Garden Spot coach Lloyd Steinmetz said. “That’s just part of bowling.
“Anybody can get hot at any time and he (Wenger) got hot at the right time.”
Courtney, who was a two-time regional champion, totaled 1,186 pins to beat Coy by 17 in qualifying, which was at Leisure Lanes. Courtney at least got the chance at a regional title after no other L-L bowler qualified higher than 17th (Columbia’s Ayden Wright).
Courtney still has a chance of repeating as state champion.
In the girls tournament, Plymouth-Whitemarsh’s Melanie Daloisio, who defeated Rotondo 221-200 in the quarterfinals and was the No. 3 qualifier, won the title with a 205-196 win over No. 4 qualifier Rayana Gonzalez of Central Dauphin East. Defending champion Aaliyah Hall of York Tech lost 211-181 to Gonzalez in the quarterfinals.
The second-highest L-L girls qualifier was Hempfield’s Ava Green, who was 19th with 926 pins.
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