Elizabeth High School’s Ashley Noel and Westfield’s Will Shepherd won Union County Tournament individual bowling titles.
The top-seeded Noel – a junior, who lost to Kiara Powell of Union in last year’s UCT final – defeated Danielle Galarza of Union Catholic in the championship match, 180-135.
As the top-seeded female kegler, Noel earned a bye into the title match. Galarza, the second seed, defeated her Union Catholic teammate, Isabella Fuentes, 242-148, in the semifinal.
Shepherd, a senior, defeated Luis Torres in the championship match, 210-204.
Shepherd started the day in 10th place – out of 16 qualifiers from Monday’s opening round – but rolled a 706 series for a six-game total of 1,309, good for the third seed in the five-man stepladder bracket. Shepherd defeated Tom Le of Johnson HS in Clark and Anthony Golabek of Linden to advance to face Torres, who received a bye into the championship match.
Torres bowled in the UCT championship match for the third straight year. He won the UCT as a freshman in 2017.
Le, who bowled a UCT best 718 series on Monday, defeated James Fitz of Linden in the opening match of the stepladder, 191-185.
Fitz started the day in 15th place, but rolled a 693 series to vault into fifth place and the final spot in the playoff. Fitz edged Allen Potts of Cranford by one pin, 1,289 to 1,288, for the fifth seed.
Shepherd and Noel and many of the other bowlers from Wednesday’s individual event will be back in action at Jersey Lane on Thursday for the final of the UCT team competition.
