NORTH VERSAILLES — No. 1 is the best and No. 2 may try harder, but No. 3 works for Butler.

Both the Golden Tornado boys and girls bowling teams placed third in the Western PA Regional team qualifying Saturday at North Versailles Bowl. The top six teams advance to this weekend’s state tournament in Ephrata.

“You always want to win, naturally, in any competition you do,” Butler coach Bob Cupp said. “But our main focus this weekend was getting both teams through to states and we did that.”

The Butler boys tallied a score of 3,792 for their third-place finish out of 18 teams. Only Hempfield (4,128) and Armstrong (3,987) finished in front of them.

Senior Dan Bellis rolled a 631 series, including games of 211 and 234. Shawn Marcellus, a freshman, rolled a 231 while junior Matt Wetzel added a 220.

The trio posted those scores a day after failing to qualify for the state meet in the individual portion of the regional.

“They bounced right back and I wasn’t surprised at all by that,” Cupp said. “These guys are all pretty focused as a team.

“The team competition was their biggest focus as a unit.”

Third place is the Butler boys highest-ever finish at the regional.

The Golden Tornado girls tallied a score of 3,515, trailing only Hempfield (3,616) and Plum (3,556) among the 20 teams in the field.

Butler’s standard total of 2,507 trailed only Plum going into the baker set games, the portion of the tournament where bowlers alternate frames.

“We practiced baker games hard for the past two weeks,” Cupp said. “Yet we struggled in them a bit at the tournament. But we did well enough.”

MiKayla White, a senior who won the individual regional title Friday, rolled a team-leading 557 series Friday, including a 216 game. Freshman Nicole Nebel added a 202 game and 544 series, senior Megan Paul a 509 series.

“MiKayla had a fantastic weekend. She just picked up where she left off from Friday,” Cupp said. “She was consistent throughout and that’s what you need in these tournaments.

“It was a difficult shot in this house and Megan was hitting the pocket, but had a hard time getting the pins to carry. She fought through that all day.

“Baylee Verner did a great job for us. Her scores weren’t the highest, but she kept picking up spares and holding us in,” Cupp added.

Verner had a 479 series. Nebel had a 187 in her second game before producing a 202.

“I’m thrilled to be getting her back for three more years,” Cupp said.