Boys take regional trophy, girls place third; both qualify for state

It is on to the state finals for both the Rogers City boys’ and girls’ bowling team. The boys’ team won the regional by rolling a 3,903 to top Whittemore-Prescott at 3,792 and Farwell with 3,664. The top three teams qualified for the state finals at the Royal Scot in Lansing. 

The girls’ team took third place with 2,944 behind Traverse City Christian with 3,203 and Oscoda at 3,188.

Each team in the tournament bowled six baker games and then three regular games. 

For the boys the baker scores were 245, 189, 192, 191, 152 and 166. The regular-games scores were 1,007, 846 and 915. 

“If you compare our regional score with the scores of all the other regionals, we had the highest score,” said coach Brian Bannasch. “This year we didn’t have much of an idea what would happen. We only had two boys that had bowled with any experience and three girls who returned from last year. For the boys to win it that was like, wow!”

The girls’ baker scores were 156, 109, 110, 134, 116 and 133 and the regular-game scores were 637, 829 and 720.

“I cannot say one negative thing about the weekend. We bowled great as a team and individually they were wonderful. Individually for the girls it ended a little spread out but with one game to go, ninth place through 14^th place, the scoring was 790, 791, 792, 793, 794 and 795. The top 10 make it to state. That was six spots separated all by one pin,” Bannasch said. 

The individual tournament saw two girls and one boy roll their way to the state individual finals. Abi Watson placed fifth at the regionals with a score of 1,001 in six games (169, 189, 188, 164, 154, 137). Chandra Ganske had a 955 total to earn the 10^th and final qualifying place (173, 149, 161, 158, 152, 162). 

Emma Bade finished just eight pins short of qualifying behind Ganske to earn 12^th place with her 947 score (115, 193, 180, 138, 166, 155). 

Emma Wickersham placed 23^rd with an 867 (138, 134, 146, 187, 137, 125) and Madison Purol placed 43^rd with a score of 754 (105, 88, 128, 116, 192, 125). Angelee Piechan was 71^st with a score of 599 (80, 91, 89, 103, 117, 108).

Jayce Sauve qualified for the state finals by finishing in ninth place out of 95 bowlers in the boys’ individual regionals. Sauve had a score of 1,138 (155, 216, 260, 194, 192, 221).

Johnny Chamberlain was the next highe

st finisher for the Hurons by taking 15^th place. He had a score of 1,072 (204, 168, 135, 200, 170, 195). Justic Watson finished 17^th at 1,065 (169, 190, 140, 169, 218, 180). 

A score of 994 earned Simon List 30^th place (148, 178, 118, 147, 245, 158). Jacob Romel was 45^th with a score of 918 (137, 195, 129, 147, 149, 161). 

Michael Robin took 52^nd place with a score of 889 (122, 149, 151, 137, 170, 160). 

The team event starts at 8 a.m. Friday with qualifying rounds of eight baker games followed by two regular games. The top eight teams in each gender begin quarterfinals at 1:15 p.m. In bracket play the format is two baker games and one regular game.