WICHITA – Everything was seemingly in place for Shawnee Heights to win back-to-back Class 5A bowling state championships a year ago.
 
After capturing the program’s first championship in 2024, the T-Birds returned every member of its state roster. Furthermore, there were some talented alternates for the state team ready to push for spots and keep the returning T-Birds from getting complacent.
 
Returning to Bowlero Northrock in Wichita with a slightly different roster to defend their Class 5A state title, the T-Birds fell short. Well short.
 
Heights finished fifth more than 300 pins behind champion Andover Central and more than 200 pins lower than their 2024 winning total.
 
“They competed last year, but it wasn’t up to their standards,” Heights coach Scott Mercer said.
 
Senior Chevy Stallbaumer was a bit more critical of the T-Birds’ performance.
 
“It was pretty disappointing knowing that we probably had the best team we’ve had and pretty much choking is how it felt,” Stallbaumer said. “It was definitely disappointing.”
 

 
Re-invigorated by that disappointment, Heights came back stronger than ever this year. Despite replacing two seniors that also were key members of the title team, Heights had the talent to be a contender again and it showed as the T-Birds enjoyed a regular season in which the T-Birds broke several school records and challenged a few state marks.
 
Thursday at Northrock, Heights left no doubt that it was once again championship material.
 
Trailing United Kansas Conference rival De Soto by just three pins after the American Tenpins games, Heights took control of the tournament during the Baker and won going away. The T-Birds finished with a 3,727 total – 180 higher than their 2024 winning total and No. 2 all-time at the 5A meet behind Kapaun Mt. Carmel's overall state-meet best of 3,769 in 2021 – and won by 103 pins over hard-charging Bishop Carroll, which capped its Baker set with a perfect 300 game to leapfrog from fifth going into the final Baker game to the runner-up position with a 3,624 total.
 
Andover Central finished third at 3,612 while a tough Baker set saw De Soto go from leading the tournament to just outside the trophy spots in fourth with a 3,608 total, just four pins behind the Jaguars.
 
“Mid-season I was kind of questioning, ‘What are we going to be this year,’” Mercer said of his team. “And it just unfolded very quickly.”
 
Mercer said some of the credit for the late-season push fell upon the leadership of Stallbaumer.
 
“It was Chevy that just lit a fire under everybody,” Mercer said.
 
Stallbaumer wasn’t a member of Heights’ championship team as a sophomore, having transferred back from Texas to join the team that season. He was still somewhat raw at that point, averaging just a 187 that season.
 
But in the two years since, he’s become arguably Heights’ most consistent bowler. Stallbaumer improved his average to 208 last year and cracked the varsity lineup. This year, he raised his average to a team-best 216 and was one of six bowlers in the state to roll a 300 game.
 
“It definitely motivated me watching that team win it two years ago,” said Stallbaumer, whose cousin Caden Cochrane led the title team with a third-place individual finish. “Texas didn’t have bowling teams and I wanted to bowl. When we moved here, I knew Heights had one and I was ready to go. I wasn’t fully prepared at that moment, wasn’t developed as a bowler. From there to now is a big difference, it’s surreal.
 
“I just try to keep everybody positive and out of their own head. Because once you get in your own head, it’s over from there.”
 

 
The T-Birds were certainly in the right headset in the weeks leading up to the state tournament. One week after setting a school scoring record, the T-Birds did it again in winning the UKC title with a 3,652 total. 
 
“We had two chances at setting three-game series state records,” Mercer said. “Both those days, we were at 2,000 after three games. I think the state record is 3,083 or something like that and we were chasing those records, but the third game killed us. And we had like 850s. And I’m like, ‘If 850 is killing us, I’m good with it.’”
 
Even though Heights finished a distant runner-up to De Soto at its Class 5A regional meet, senior Henry Schattilly had a good feeling on Wednesday that something big was going to happen Thursday.
 
“Yesterday when we were practicing down at Seneca (Bowl), me and Chevy were sitting that and were saying, ‘We’re all bowling good tomorrow,’” he said. “We weren’t even here (at Northrock) but we knew we were going to bowl good. We weren’t trying to be cocky or anything, but we were at peace with thing.”
 

 
Schattilly’s premonition certainly played out. Heights got off to a strong start with five of the six T-Birds having opening games of 211 or better highlighted by a 255 from Stallbaumer and 242 from Evan Jones. In the second game, all six T-Birds finished between 224 and 237.
 
The third game was more of the same with five T-Birds at 204 or better with Trey Donath rolling a 276 and Stallbaumer a 246. Both ended up finishing individually in the top 10 with Stallbaumer’s 738 series placing him sixth and Donath’s 725 series putting him eighth. They were joined in the top 10 by Jones, who placed 10th with a 693 series.
 
“Game three was insane,” Donath said. “It helped us a lot. We had the girls back there cheering for us as well and it was a whole team effort. Everybody was on fire.”
 
As good as Heights was in tenpins with team games of 932, 915 and 982, De Soto was just a tad bit better. Headlined a 742 from fifth-place finisher Sean Graham and a 735 series from Dalton Spring, who placed seventh, the Wildcats had team games of 949, 907 and 976 for a 2,832 total that put them three pins clear of Heights.
 
But the feeling for Heights has consistently been, be close going into the Baker games and their depth will prevail. 
 
“We all play off each other so well,” Schattilly said. “Me and Evan, we play the same shot and I can play off the same shot as Trey as well. This team feels a lot better than the state team from two years ago. The energy is just here for all of us. When we bowl, we’re all one and that’s what matters.”
 

 
Heights opened the Baker with a 235 game while De Soto opened with a 191, immediately creating a bit of a gap, though Bishop Carroll began its charge with a 257 after going into Baker 148 pins behind the T-Birds. The gap widened in the second Baker game with Heights rolling a 216 and De Soto a 187.
 
The T-Birds put the pedal down, posting a 235 third game to take complete control. Though they finished with a 212, it was more than enough to lock up the victory, even as Carroll finished with a 300 final game.
 
“The first time we won, I think we were ecstatic to be there,” Heights senior Kaden Evans said. “I had full confidence in us that year, but it was pretty shocking that we won. This year a lot of deja-vu. This year second at regionals and that year, the same thing. It’s just been going and going and the momentum pushed us to win this year.”
 
Heights’ title gives the United Kansas Conference the Class 5A state champion four of the past five years with Piper winning in 2023 and Seaman in 2022. The league had nearly half of the teams in this year’s field with four – Heights, De Soto, Lansing and Turner – and that kind of competition on a weekly basis certainly played a factor in the T-Birds’ title.
 
“The schools that are in our league, they’re all heavy hitters,” Stallbaumer said. “Our regional was hard. It’s tough and you have to grind down and it makes you tougher in the long run.”
 
Heights will lose seniors Stallbaumer, Schattilly and Kaden Evans off this year’s title team but returns Donath – now a two-time state placer – as well as Jones and Braden Evans, who placed 29th individually.
 
“I think this year was better because we had a lot of seniors and we’re going to miss them,” Donath said. “It feels great and we want to keep this going and I’m looking forward to that a lot.”
 

 
Mercer also said this year’s title meant a little more to him as well.
 
“I was always hoping to get another one because I don’t know that I enjoyed that first one,” he said. “So many things were going on at that time and I just didn’t really enjoy it. But I’ll savor this one.”
 

 
CLASS 5A BOYS TEAM SCORES
 
1 Shawnee Heights 3,727; 2. Bishop Carroll 3,624; 3. Andover Central 3,612; 4. De Soto 3,608; 5. Emporia 3,571; 6. Lansing 3,444; 7. St. James Academy 3,282; 8. Goddard 3,267; 9. Turner 3,256.