CHENEY — The Iola High Special Olympics unified bowling team participated in the KSHSAA unified bowling regional tournament in Cheney Thursday.
Iola finished in seventh place at the tournament.
The Mustangs played one team of three peer buddies and two athletes due to the postseason tournament format. The team consisted of Guilis Pina, Shaun McLaughlin, Gavin Doolittle, Reese Curry and Stephanie Fees.
The team was made up of the top-five bowlers from Iola this season.
“I’m very proud of our team on the improvements and progress they’ve made this season, but more importantly on the relationships they formed and for always choosing to include,” said Iola head coach Ann Bates.
Iola scored 598 total points through the six games of bakers style bowling with Doolittle leading the pack with eight spares and two strikes. McLaughlin and Fees each knocked down one spare while Curry had one spare and one strike.
The Mustangs sat in third place at the end of the first heat of bowlers. Iola was then knocked out of the top-five after the second heap of bowlers for the seventh place finish. The finish was not enough to move onto the state tournament this week in Topeka.
