On February 1st, after a hard working season, Noblesville High School’s bowling team became the first ever co-ed team to win state. In the competition they competed against many schools in Indiana, but in the end they were up against Terre Haute South for the title of state champions.

At the end of their season last year they had gone all the way to state and came in 4th. But coming into this year’s season they had some problems, but as a hard working team they were able to overcome that hardship by working together. 

“The team’s success towards the beginning of the season was bowling as a team. We had a hard time being a team in the beginning because we still were coming off the high of last season,” senior Taylor Smith said. “We were able to slap ourselves out of it and we were a team again, we trusted each other.”

While the team worked on coming together as a team, coach Tom Tarzwell was trying to have the team work on things they felt like they needed to work on things they struggled with last year. 

“We made the stepladder last year and lost in the first round,” Coach Tarzwell said. “Our focus on picking up spares was all due to making it to the stepladder last year, and leaving pins out there.”

With all the hard work the team put in this year, they had won and came out on top. Sophomore Lena Tarzwell was one of the seven bowlers that claimed the state championship title. 

“That moment was unbelievable. I couldn’t believe we had actually won,” Tarzwell said. “We have worked all year to win and we finally did.” 

According to Smith, the crowd went wild when they had found out their hard work had paid off. 

“The whole moment was just very cheerful and full of excitement,” Smith said.  “And the fact that we are the first coed team to win state is a pretty big moment. A lot of people didn’t think a co-ed team could do anything.”

According to Senior James Sutton, he felt confident going into the step ladders having faith they have a chance to win. 

“The moment was almost numbing I’d say. It happened so fast and realizing that we actually won it was amazing for me,” Sutton said. “I wanted to end my high school career with some type of championship and we won two tournament towards the end. It was tense but the whole team had confidence in what we were doing.” 

With all their hard work coming out on the lanes and with the hope that they would do better than last year, the bowling team went out and worked hard. Sutton felt the drive to do better than last year. 

“Last year’s 4th place finish only fueled the fire. It gave us the drive to make it back this year to win,” Sutton said. “We knew we had the talent just last year we got some unfortunate breaks. This year we made the best shots we could and it all led to the top of the hill.”

After last year Coach Tarzwell learned from last year and everything they accomplished and used that to go into this year’s competition. And that led them to this year’s accomplishments.

“It ended on a much higher note.  We watched the rest of the matches last year and learned what it takes to be a champion,” Coach Tarzwell said. “They proved they were champions all year.”