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High school stars head to state finals

It’s been such a good two weeks on the lanes for high school bowlers, I had to make a list of their accomplishments before I set out with today’s column.

Here’s the highlights:

All four area teams – Marquette, Ishpeming-Negaunee, Westwood and L’Anse – qualified at least one bowler for the MHSAA individual state finals on Saturday.

One boys and one girls team will also make the trek to the team finals taking place on Friday.

On Feb. 20, area schools swept the titles at the Upper Peninsula Bowling Conference team finals held in Iron Mountain.

With that said, let me give you a few more highlights. More details are available on today’s Scorecard listing on Page 2B.

Starting at the top – make that the biggest school – the Marquette “A” squad won the UPBC boys team title, unseating I-N by 41 pins after trailing the Hematites by more than a hundred pins entering the final regular team game. The Redmen shot 923 that game to 767 for Ishpeming.

And the Marquette girls were a solid third at their UPBC team competition.

The MSHS teams had their disappointment, however, at the MHSAA team regionals in Gaylord, where both came in one spot out of qualifying for the state finals. Three teams advance and each team was fourth.

The girls missed third by 168 pins, actually tying Iron Mountain for fourth, while the boys were a tantalizing 13 pins short of third-place Bay City John Glenn.

And that came after another huge comeback by the Redmen, who made up more than 200 pins on John Glenn in the last regular game.

Individually, though, two Marquette boys will be bowling at the Super Bowl in Canton on Saturday as part of the 10 best scorers in Gaylord.

Junior Hunter Negri finished second with 1,213, just 22 pins shy of top qualifier Johnny Kositzky of Escanaba.

Junior teammate Liam Robinson cut it about as close as possible, finishing 10th with 1,062, just three pins ahead of the first bowler out who came in 11th.

Moving on to I-N, the Hematites-Miners won the girls UPBC title with 3,137, a full 102 pins ahead of runner-up Iron Mountain. Much of that advantage came in the six Baker-style games, where teammates alternate frames to come up with a single-game score.

But it was the boys who qualified for the Division 3 state team finals at Airport Lanes in Jackson on Friday. They were third in their Cheboygan regional with 3,718, holding off the hometown Chiefs, who finished fourth just 38 pins back.

The I-N girls were fifth with 3,086, 143 pins out of third.

And a senior boy and girl will be chasing a singles title in Jackson on Saturday. Lucas Solka, winner of the UPBC singles tourney about two weeks ago, finished sixth with 1,108, missing first by 66 pins but more importantly staying 30 pins ahead of the first bowler on the outside in 11th.

Kassey Kytola just stayed above the water line in 10th with 1,020, 14 pins ahead of 11th even though she only missed the top shooter, Mikayla Kewley of Menominee, by 79.

With only a girls team, Westwood turned a sixth-place showing at the UPBC tourney into a third place and state finals qualifier in Division 4 on Friday at Royal Scot Lanes in Lansing. The Patriots totaled 2,799 in their regional at Traverse City, 58 pins ahead of fourth place.

And senior Jordan Korpi kept the 10th-place theme going with that finish and a 892 score in singles, 19 pins ahead of the first bowler out in 11th.

L’Anse had a pair of eighth-place finishes at the UPBC’s and improved to fifth for the boys and seventh for the girls in D4 team regionals at Traverse City.

Then senior Tucker Hemmila was a solid third in boys singles qualifying as he’ll advance to Royal Scot on Saturday. He rolled 1,116, 89 pins out of first place but 88 pins ahead of the 11th-place bowler.

Now for The Mining Journal Bowlers of the Week for Feb. 17-23:

The men were in a high-scoring mood with Kirk Guckenberg leading the way at 194 pins over his 194 average in the Wednesday Trio at Red Rock Lanes. He shot 776 with a 270 high game.

Runner-up was Evan Tapio in the Tuesday Major at Red Rock, 174 over his 187 average with 735 and a 248 best, then Jim Bauer in the Monday Northern Electric Automotive Industrial at Red Rock, 148 over his 177 average with 679 and a 287 tops.

For the women, Paula Johnson carted off honors in the Tuesday Night Mixed at Superior Lanes when she rolled 114 pins over her 150 average with a 564 series and 219 top game.

Next was Kathy Parent in the Wednesday Trio, 107 over her 148 average with 551 and a 206 topper, then Teri Thompson in the Thursday Night Ladies at Red Rock, 101 over her 137 average with 512.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.

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