WICHITA – Ryan Pfeifer didn’t have many missteps Thursday in his first state high school bowling tournament.
 
OK, there was the awards ceremony, where the Bishop Carroll freshman briefly lined up in the wrong spot after he was announced as the Class 5A individual champion.
 
But everything Pfeifer did with a bowling ball in his hands at Bowlero Northrock equated to success.
 
Pfeifer bookended his tenpin series with games of 276 and 266 on the way to a 770 total, winning the individual title by 14 pins over runner-up Daegan Miller of Great Bend, who shot 756. Pfeifer later filled the anchor role for the Golden Eagles in their four-game Baker set and thrilled Carroll supporters by putting the finishing touches on a 300 game that helped Carroll finish second in the team competition to Shawnee Heights.
 

 “It’s kind of crazy because it’s my freshman year and I’m not expecting to do all this,” Pfeifer said. “It was just kind of crazy.”
 
Dialed in from the get-go, Pfeifer surpassed his previous best series this season by 77 pins and was Carroll’s lone individual medalist. He closed his series with eight consecutive strikes to vault past Miller, a senior and first-time state qualifier who entered the final game with a 22-pin lead over Pfeifer and 19-pin lead on Blue Valley Southwest freshman Bennett Van Dyke, who finished third with a 746 series.
 
Pfeifer became Carroll’s third individual champion, joining Dillon Malone, who won 5-1A in 2018, and 2020 5-1A winner Blake Albers. His 770 pinfall ranks third among the highest 5A individual scores posted at a state tournament.
 
“With Ryan you just learn to expect it from him,” Carroll coach Ron Horsch said. “He’s had that capability all year. He was coming off a great regional. He had some bad breaks where he didn’t have that 700 series yet. But the way he bowls, you expect it.”
 
Pfeifer quickly noticed during his practice shots Thursday he was working with a lot of “miss room,” a margin of error where an off-target shot can still strike. That gave him an extra jolt of confidence for his maiden voyage at state.
 
“My first couple shots when right to the pocket, and I knew it was going to be a good day,” Pfeifer said.
 

Pfeifer was just three pins off the lead after the first game, as Van Dyke opened with a 279. The Carroll bowler stayed three pins behind Van Dyke after two games after both rolled 228s, but Pfeifer fell further off the lead as Miller surged in front with a 278.
 
“I bowled the best I have all season,” said Miller, who qualified for state with just four pins to spare at the Hutchinson regional. “But there were a couple easy spares that could have taken me closer to the lead in that last game.”
 
Despite an open eighth frame in his final game, Miller managed to overtake Van Dyke in the 10^th, ending his series with a 230 that temporarily put him in front by 10 pins. But with Pfeifer at the other end of Northrock putting together his run of strikes, the Golden Eagle jumped into the lead with his trio in the final frame.
 
“I felt pretty good because I was just treating it like a normal tournament, but a little bigger,” Pfeifer said. “I was kind of overwhelmed after my series, but I gathered myself up and got ready for Bakers.”
 

Little did Pfeifer know another signature moment awaited.
 
Carroll entered the Baker portion of the tournament in fifth place, 151 pins behind then-leader De Soto and 148 behind eventual champion Shawnee Heights. The Golden Eagles’ quintet of senior Ambrose Suter-Doeden, freshman Caden Seiler, sophomore Parker Frederking, senior Jesus Lucero and Pfeifer opened Bakers with a 257 followed by a 229.
 
Carroll took a step back in the third game, rolling a 157 that kept them in fifth place. But the Eagles saved their best for last.
 
Carroll handed its perfect game to Pfeifer in the final frame and he kept the strike parade moving. The 10-pin hesitated on his final throw, but was knocked over by another pin, setting off a raucous cheer on Northrock’s south end.
 
The 300 moved Carroll ahead of Andover Central, De Soto and Emporia into the second spot.
 
“My adrenaline is still running from that game,” Horsch said. “I’ve never been a part of one and it was really exciting to be a part of all the way to the very end.
 
“If there was anyone I wanted to finish it, it was Ryan.”
 

CLASS 5A BOYS INDIVIDUAL MEDALISTS
 
1. Ryan Pfeifer, Bishop Carroll, 770; 2. Daegan Miller, Great Bend, 756; 3. Bennett Van Dyke, Blue Valley Southwest, 746; 4. Gabriel Gibson, St. James Academy, 742; 5. Sean Graham, De Soto, 742; 6. Chevy Stallbaumer, Shawnee Heights, 738; 7. Dalton Springer, De Soto, 735; 8. Larry Donath, Shawnee Heights, 725; 9. Jacob Kamprath, Emporia, 700; 10. Evan Jones, Shawnee Heights, 693; 11. Colin Light, Andover Central, 684; 12. Cooper Pierce, Lansing, 682; 13. Evan Light, Andover Central, 681; 14. Michael Wendling, Emporia, 678; 15. Garrett Shaw, Seaman, 678; 16. Gunnar Whitney, Andover Central, 675; 17. Remington Burke, Newton, 672; 18. Nathaniel Green, Emporia, 670; 19. Luke Reynolds, Turner, 669; 20. Eric Sather, Goddard, 665.