The Wildcat varsity bowlers once again roared on the lanes this past week.
After coming off a disappointing Oakland County tournament the boys bounced back with and 19 to 11 win over North Farmington.
Leading the way in the victory over the Raiders was Christian Cartner with games of 230 and 209 in his two wins. Eric Armbruster also had two wins and a 236 game. The most exciting match of the afternoon was Luke Delong of Oxford and JD Maynard of North Farmington, who matched each other strike for strike in route to a 244 tie game. Luke tossed seven out of eight strikes during the game while JD threw the front seven strikes.
‘We didn’t perform very well at Oakland County this weekend and I didn’t know how we’d handle tonight. We bowled well enough to win but still had a lot of mistakes,? said Head Coach JR Lafnear. ‘This is a hard working group so we’ll be just fine after a good practice or two.?
The win keeps the boy cats at 7-0
Like the boys, the girls were able to bounce back from a disappointing Oakland County Tournament and get a 24-6 victory over North Farmington.
After winning both baker games the Wildcats were paced by Megan Kessler with two wins and a impressive 244 game. Claire Sandstrom had two wins and solid 218 game, while Abby Pappas rolled a 192 and 190 to capture two victories. Co-captains Hannah Farmer and Mackenzie Janssen each had wins for Oxford as well.
This runs the girls record to 6 and 0 on the season and a share of atop the OAA red division with Lake Orion.
On Saturday both teams traveled to Sterling Heights for the Tri-County Baker Invitational, which is ‘one of the strongest fields Oxford faces each year,? according to Lafnear.
Twenty-six outstanding programs from Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties gathered to bowl the 12 baker games. The Oxford boys won the tournament in 2015 and wanted to repeat that feat in 2016.?
Oxford used everyone on the team in qualifying and earned the 13th seed averaging 191 for the 12 games. The Championship round is now best two of three baker games, Lafnear explained.
In the round 16 Oxford faced St. Clair Shores Lakeshore the number four seed. SCS averaged 211 in qualifying. Oxford would win in three games in an extremely close match. The Cats now faced Warren Mott in the eighth round. Mott was the five seed and averaged over 206 in qualifying. Oxford won in two games shooting games of 227 and 234.
In the final four the Oxford boys faced the number one seed Macomb Dakota. Dakota averaged nearly 220 in the qualifying. The Wildcats were up for the challenge shooting 255 and 227 to advance to the finals against Lance Creuse North. LCN averaged 213 in qualifying and was the third seed.?
In the finals the Oxford Boys rallied late to tie game one with a score of 226. The boys tossed the last five strikes to earn the tie. Game two LCN won 235 to 177. In game three the Oxford Keglers won 182 to 181. The Championship was then decided by the tie breaker total pins. Oxford finished second 642 to 585.
‘This was the best performance by an Oxford Boys team this year. We averaged 211 in the championship rounds and really battled our tails off,? Lafnear said. ‘We made shot after shot and performed in the clutch. It really was a fun afternoon and I couldn’t be prouder of these young men. The work they but in at practice really paid off today.?
The Lady Keglers of Oxford bowled well Saturday. For the 12 games of qualifying they averaged 184 with a high game of 234. For there efforts they earned the fifth seed in the 16 round. They then beat the 12th seed, Macomb Dakota in round 1 to move into the eighth. That’s the good news, the bad news, it was against Lake Orion. After a late rally the girls won game one of the best of three. LO won game two to force a deciding game three. There Oxford seemed to have the third game under control but late mistakes and clutch bowling by LO saw LO advance by just two pins.
The highlight of the day was Megan Kessler. In qualifying she threw 17 out of 24 strikes and at one point had 12 consecutive strikes.
On Monday, the boys traveled to Hazel Park, where they Hazel Park proved no match for the Wildcats after a 28-2 win.
The Oxford boys continued their hot bowling with baker games of 213 and 223 to sweep the 10 points. Then Luke Delong tosses a 247 that included a string of 7 straight strikes and Carter Anolick bowled a fine 223. The Cats would shoot a nice 1038 team game to close out the Hazel Park team early. Winning points for the Oxford boys along with Carter and Luke were Will Fallon, David Staser, and the Cartner brothers Christian and Tanner.
This runs the boys record to 8 and 0 on the season. The Wildcats are the only undefeated team in the OAA and stand alone atop the Red Division standings.
‘We are bowling very well right now. The guys are working hard in practice and it’s showing in the spare shooting,? Lafnear said. ‘Winning Baker games are all about filling frames and we are doing a great job of that right now. We have guys that can roll big games but to be a good team you must be strong in Baker games?
Hazel Park is in a rebuilding mode and has no Girls Varsity at this time.
On Saturday, both boys and girls will travel to Imperial Lanes in Clinton Township for a tournament.