Bowlers finish in finals

Bowlers finished their winter season but not before the boys varsity team made one more stop at the state finals, March 2.
The Wolves started out strong with four baker games of 201, 191, 193 and 235 and were in first place with 820 pins.
“The next baker games we ran into trouble,” said Coach Alan Pittman. “We missed a lot of spares bowling a 116 and a 142 for a baker set of 258. We regrouped and finished the baker games strong with 181 and 22 for a pin count of 1,485.”
The boys were in fifth place after the eight baker games when they went into the first team game. Jacob Kersten bowled a 214, Eric Wagner had a 212 and Tim Cuthrell scored a 195 for a team game of 946 moving them to fourth place.
Cuthrell and Kersten led in the last game, Cuthrell had a 229 game and Kersten had a 193. They ended with a team game of 882 for a grand total of 3313 for ninth place. They missed the cut to advance to match play by six pins.
“We missed way too many spares and had some errors that eventually cost us,” said Pittman. “We still had a great year, won a tournament, won our division, won the regional qualifier and ended up ninth in the state. They should still be proud of this years accomplishments.”
Kersten competed in the singles portion – scoring 205, 219, 225, 137, 203 and 259 for a series total of 1248. His last game at 259 put him at fifth place.
He moved on to match play, taking on the #12 seed, Kody Wojewski from Wayne Memorial. Kersten won the match 362 to 295 after two games.
He moved on to the elite eight taking on # 13 seed, Jeff Pietryka from Clinton Township Chippewa Valley, He lost the match 331 to 404.
“I am very proud of Jake, not only for his first time bowling in the state finals as a freshman but also how he conducted himself on and off the lanes,” Pittman added. “He truly showed class even during his defeat. As a coach, this is what we aim to teach to all of our bowlers. I would like to thank Jacob for his achievements and for representing his school with true dignity. I couldn’t be more proud of him.”
The boys qualified for states after taking first place in the MHSAA Regionals.
Brock Nowak led the way with 182, 212 and a 235 for a series of 629, the second highest for individual scoring. Kersten was second leading in the score with games of 208, 195 and 179 for a series of 582, which was eighth in individual scoring. Anthony Hernandez with a 198 game. Wagner had a 206 game and Kyle Kirby had a 242.
Kersten took eighth place in the singles tournament to qualify for states with a 1118 game.
The girls finished eighth out of 14 teams for the team competition at regionals. They scored 3137 after six baker games and three games.
Danielle Hopkins finished in 18th place, scoring a total of 1030 with a high game of 201. Vicki Wolfgang finished in 22nd place with a total of 995 and a high score of 219. Sophie Hubble finished 23rd with a total score of 990 with a high game score of 182.