A variety of factors catapulted Cooper senior Alexis Tignor to last week’s girls singles championship at the KHSAA state bowling tournament.
Jaguars coach Joe Deters explains.
“Alexis is a good fundamental bowler with solid technique and power and she’s a very hard worker,” Deters said. “She’s experienced and she’s also very poised. It all came together for her in the state final.”
Deters said Tignor is the first Cooper individual to win a KHSAA state bowling crown. The No. 3 seed coming out of the qualifying round, Tignor upset top-seeded Peyton Ramey of Boyle County in the stepladder championship. Tignor routed Ramey by the score of 267-215, at Kingpin Lanes in Jeffersontown.
Deters called it a perfect storm for his veteran bowler. In fact, Tignor flirted with perfection heading into the ninth frame of the final by stringing together eight consecutive strikes to begin the match.
“The tournament was pushed back due to snow and bad weather and Alexis had to wait and think about it for two extra weeks,” Deters said. “For her to bowl like she did was impressive.”
Tignor was one of four bowlers earning the stepladder finals with a five-game qualifying score of 1,025, good for a 205 average. Her high score during qualifying was 224. By contrast, Ramey averaged a shade over 250 during qualifying with a high of 290.
The Nos. 3 and 4 seeds face each other to begin the stepladder finals with the No. 2 seed awaiting the winner. The No. 1 seed rolls one game, in the championship final against the surviving lower seed. Tignor defeated Graves County’s No. 4 seed Addyson Clifton, 249-156 to open play. She then eliminated No. 2 seed Kendall Craig of Henry Clay, 224-220, in a narrow escape.
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“As good as she was in the final, she was even more impressive in the semifinal,” Deters said. “She had to throw two strikes and a 7 to win and she threw three strikes. All the pressure in the world was on her right there. When she won that match, I knew she’d win the final because it seemed all the pressure was off.”
In the final, Tignor proceeded to roll another eight consecutive perfect shots to take a commanding lead over Ramey heading into the ninth frame.
“It was amazing,” Tignor said of her streak of strikes. “I’m still in a state of shock.”
Three days after her surprise conquest, Tignor was still unable to process what happened.
“Not fully,” she said. “It was something unexpected.”
Tignor emerged as a surprise finalist after a series of twists and turns involving the favorites.
Ramey’s 1,251 qualifying score was a record. Craig was defending state champion after toppling since-graduated Boyle County standout Shelbi Webb in last year’s final match. Webb is bowling at University of the Cumberlands. Ramey inherited Webb’s role of team ace at Boyle County.
Didn’t matter to Tignor.
She vanquished both Craig and Ramey to take the crown. Deters said Tignor’s three-game score of 740 in the stepladder finals is her career-best at Cooper and one of the top totals in the history of the girls state tournament.
“I just bowled,” Tignor said. “Everything comes second nature when you practice a lot.”
Hours and hours of practice nearly made Tignor perfect in the championship match, not that perfection would have been a personal first. Her final tally of 267 approached her second-best score of 283. Tignor rolled a perfect score of 300 when she was 14 years old in a league match at Bellewood Lanes in Newport, where she’s been competing in youth leagues for years. She’s also employed there.
“She started bowling when she was 4,” said her father, Joel Tignor, Cooper’s assistant coach. “Bowling has been in our family for decades. Her grandfather was an original pin boy back when they used to manually reset the pins (before the advent of automatic pinsetters). Her mom was a league bowler. I’ve been a youth bowler and a league bowler and I still bowl off and on. My mom was a league bowler.”
Coach Tignor said his daughter’s chief strengths include consistency, power and placement. That’s why she has made a commitment to bowl in college at Belmont Abbey in North Carolina.
“If you’re not consistent, you’re not going to do very well,” coach Tignor said while speaking of his daughter’s ability to repeat her motion. “Alexis has the same hand release, the same ball speed. She consistently hits her mark. She throws a 15-pound ball 17 miles per hour. Not a lot of girls can do that with that much power and accuracy.”
When Alexis Tignor’s shots hit the pocket, pins scatter in a thunderous, percussive burst that reverberates through the alley.
“That’s what it was like at the state tournament,” coach Tignor said. “She was on it. It was lights out. Everything fell into place.”
In addition to Deters and her father, Tignor also has a private coach, so she has three sets of eyes on her game. That helps keep her bowling game consistent and ever evolving.
There’s also this. Alexis Tignor is a left-handed bowler. She is the lone southpaw on the Jaguars and one of the few competing at state. According to the Bowling Foundation, about 10% of bowlers are left-handed. This minority status can present certain challenges for lefties, including limited equipment options, fewer resources, fewer coaches tailored specifically for them and less wear on their side of the lane when competing.
“Being left-handed does make me stand out. Not a lot of coaches have experience with left-handers,” said Tignor, whose coaches are right-handed.
Left-handers have more consistent surface oil patterns on the lanes to work with due to fewer lefties bowling along with them. Since the vast majority of bowlers are right-handed, the right side of the lane tends to get more wear causing the oil to degrade faster. While this can lead to inconsistent oil patterns and more challenging conditions for righties, left-handers can benefit from a more stable and predictable lane condition, allowing them to maintain better control and accuracy in their shots.
“But if you’re left-handed, you can struggle when there are more left-handers at a tournament,” Tignor said. “There’s more lane movement because of the different oil patterns. You have to be able to adjust.”
Tignor’s ability to make these adjustments has enabled her to bookend her varsity bowling career with championships. She’s just the third northern Kentucky girl to win state. Cooper won the girls team state title when she was an eighth grader on the squad. Cooper won the regional crown her freshman and sophomore years. Tignor began a three-year run as regional singles runner-up as a sophomore.
“It’s nice knowing all the hard work paid off,” Tignor said. “I’m really looking forward to bowling at the next level in college and experience something terrific.”