ISHPEMING — Girls from Ishpeming and Westwood high schools made it through their qualifying rounds into the bracketed finals at a pair of MHSAA Bowling Finals venues just over a week ago.

Two other Westwood bowlers also advanced from regional into the state finals, though they didn’t advance out of the finals qualifying.

Here is a breakdown on the finalists and a roundup of regional competition:

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Patriots girls make semis

On March 4 in the Division 4 team tournament held at M-66 Bowl in Battle Creek, the Westwood girls advanced through the qualifying and won their opening knockout match before bowing out in the semifinals.

The Patriots finished sixth in qualifying, making the eight-team cut among 18 competing teams from all over the state. Westwood totaled 2,643 for what is 18 games — eight are Baker-style games, where the five bowlers alternate frames to come up with a single-game score, and then bowlers roll their own scores for two games, totaling another 10 games.

Westwood finished 122 pins ahead of the ninth-place team, the first team that missed the cut.

The Patriots had Baker games of 190, 172, 124, 159, 134, 142, 137 and 105, as the Baker format makes it notoriously tough to post high scores since most or all of the five bowlers have to be “on” to achieve big numbers.

Their team games, each made up of five bowlers, were 729 and 761. Individual scores weren’t available on the MHSAA website, www.mhsaa.com.

The eight advancing teams were then seeded for the knockout rounds based on qualifying scores. No. 6 Westwood knocked off No. 3 Traverse City Christian 1,136-1,028 in the opening round.

The Pats had Baker games of 167 and 173 with a team game of 796, while TCC had 112, 177 and 739.

In the next round, eventual state champion and No. 7 seeded Bronson beat Westwood, 1,095-1,066.

Westwood had 148 and 152 Baker and 766 for the team, while Bronson recorded 167, 160 and 768.

Bronson’s next match, the state title match, was a 1,120-1,011 win over Grass Lake.

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Hilsabeck-Phillips

Ishpeming freshman Miley Hilsabeck-Phillips didn’t let her relative youth intimidate her at the Division 3 singles finals held March 5 at JAX 60 in Jackson.

She rolled 1,064 over six games of qualifying, a 177.3 average.

That netted her the 16th and final spot out of that round as 16 bowlers among the 60 competitors got to advance. Hilsabeck-Phillips beat out the 17th place bowler — the first not to advance — by just a single pin.

Her games were 190, 193, 166, 216, 163 and 136.

With the bracket again seeded based on qualifying scores, she had to go up against No. 1 qualifier Brooklyn Butler of Croswell-Lexington, who won their two-game match, 382-297.

Hilsabeck-Phillips rolled games of 128 and 169 vs. Butler’s 221 and 161.

Butler went on to win the state championship three rounds later.

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Ostola, Ketola in finals

One of Westwood’s team state finalist girls, sophomore Elise Ketola, just missed the singles qualifying cut on March 5 in Battle Creek.

She qualified 19th with 961, missing the 16th-place cutoff by 13 pins. Averaging 160.2, her games were 142, 157, 180, 179, 136 and 167.

Patriots boys senior Danny Ostola was 59th in his Division 3 qualifying with 781 and a high game, his third game, of 149.

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Regionals — Ishpeming

Those previously mentioned qualified out of their regional meets, but Ishpeming, Westwood and L’Anse each sent multiple boys and girls to represent their schools at their respective regionals.

In Division 3 at the Gaylord Bowling Center in Gaylord, the Ishpeming boys team finished eighth out of 13 teams as three advanced to the state finals.

The Hematites, who are in a cooperative with Negaunee High School, rolled 3,175 over a combination of Baker and “regular” games, finishing 412 pins out of the final qualifying spot of third place.

Ishpeming didn’t field a girls squad in team competition.

In singles, Hilsabeck-Phillips was fifth with 937, a 156.2 average as the top 10 advanced to the state finals. Her games there were 171, 100, 134, 136, 212 and 184.

Sofiah Coker of Clare qualified No. 1 with 1,044 as Hilsabeck-Phillips finished 51 pins ahead of the first bowler out in 11th place.

Ishpeming sophomore Zoe Stakvel was 53rd with 623 and a high game of 123.

For the boys, IHS junior Jacob Korsman had a close call for the state finals, finishing 14th with 1,092 and missing the qualifying cut by 39 pins.

Korsman’s games were 172, 183, 157, 248, 177 and 155, a 182.0 average.

Also for the Ishpeming boys, sophomore Malcolm Forbes was 25th with 1,039 and a 223 high game, sophomore Derek Feys was 27th with 1,019 and 204 high, sophomore Porter Bays was 61st with 826 and a 168 high, and junior Jacob Ulvila tied for 67th with 804 and a 164 high.

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Regionals — Westwood

The Patriots’ girls team won their Division 4 regional held at Lucky Jack’s in Maple City with 3,097, beating out the fourth-place nonqualifying team by 230 pins.

Westwood had Baker games of 135, 147, 176, 108, 133 and 120 with the 176 the second highest among 90 Baker games bowled there, then added regular games of 783, 768 and 727, the first two games the second- and third-highest regular games in their regional group.

The Patriots boys finished fifth in their team competition with 3,123, missing the top-three cut by 187.

In singles, Ketola was the No. 2 girls qualifier with 1,050, a 175.0 average on games of 182, 144, 213, 134, 182 and 195.

Regional girls winner Becca Claypool of Beaverton beat her by just 20 pins, while Ketola was 113 pins ahead of the first bowler out in 11th place.

Four of Westwood’s other five girls all finished in the top 25 among the 84 competitors, led by junior Kirsten LaMere in 13th with 928 on games of 154, 136, 185, 148, 166 and 139. She missed the cut by just 19 pins.

WHS junior Kylie Junak was 16th with 904 and a high game of 170, senior Lyla Burke 18th with 862 and a 164 high, junior Kaitlyn Moebius 24th with 831 and a 161 high and senior Emma Blecker 62nd with 666 and a 132 high.

For the Patriots boys, Ostola finished seventh with 989, a 164.8 average, on games of 118, 151, 145, 265, 141 and 169. Josh Gross of Coleman won the regional with 1,198, while Ostola finished 30 pins ahead of the 11th place bowler.

Three other Westwood senior boys were all within five places and 30 pins of the cut.

Zakary Senske was 13th with 951, missing 10th place by 12 pins, on games of 158, 189, 132, 131, 139 and 202.

Jake Johnson was 14th with 936 on games of 147, 132, 139, 173, 188 and 157, as he missed the cut by 27.

And Jacob Mattson tied for 15th with 934 on games of 188, 169, 158, 162, 125 and 132 as he missed the cut by 29.

Another WHS senior, Gavin Scott, was 37th with 879 and a 165 high game, while junior teammate Ted Heri was 59th with 753 and a 144 high.

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Regionals — L’Anse

Attending the same Division 4 regional as Westwood at Maple City, L’Anse had its closest call in boys singles, where senior Bruce Tovey was 17th with 930, missing the cut by just 33 pins. His games were 198, 145, 165, 140, 136 and 146.

Sophomore teammate Victor Westman was 57th with 771 and a 168 high game, junior Nathen Marquardt 63rd with 739 and a 141 high, junior Austin Sikkila 71st with 686 and a 158 high and senior Mike Marquardt 77th with 654 and a 122 high.

For the Purple Hornets’ girls in singles, senior Emily Kayramo led the way in 23rd with 833, missing 10th place by 114 pins.

Her games were 152, 146, 133, 150, 131 and 121.

Senior teammate Tianna Pillsbury was 29th with 811 and a 181 high game, freshman Nataleigh Aleo 49th with 698 and a 152 high, junior Callie Frisk 55th with 683 and a 142 high, junior Cassie Zasadnyj 67th with 653 and a 131 high and freshman Courtney Deschaine 75th with 609 and a 125 high.

In team, the L’Anse girls were 13th of 15 teams with 2,266, while the Hornets’ boys were 14th of 16 with 2,542.

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