The boys singles finals for these high school bowlers was held there, a week after the girls had their championship tournament in the UPBC.

And like with the girls, a Marquette County bowler waltzed off with the title.

On this day, it was Killean Ryan of the combined Ishpeming and Negaunee team, who survived a day bowling 14 games and averaging better than 190 throughout all of them.

But Ryan was just the tip of a Marquette County iceberg as 10 of the 16 qualifiers for match play came from the three teams there, plus another qualifier from L’Anse in Baraga County. Four were from Westwood, another four from Marquette and two from Ishpeming-Negaunee.

These are the four semifinalists, all of them from Marquette County schools, at the boys singles finals tournament held in the Upper Peninsula Bowling Conference at Recreation Lanes in Iron Mountain last Saturday. From left are Camden Grover of Westwood, Killean Ryan of Ishpeming-Negaunee, Sean Buckmaster of Marquette and Aries Korsman of I-N. Ryan won the title over Grover in the championship match. (Photo courtesy Maria Virch)

By the time the 16 qualifiers had been whittled down to four semifinalists after two single-elimination rounds, Marquette C

ounty was guaranteed the champ as only Ryan, teammate Aries Korsman, Marquette’s Sean Buckmaster and Westwood’s Camden Grover were left.

In the finals, Ryan defeated Grover in a two-game, total-pins match, 385-245, for the title. You could excuse both bowlers if their scores weren’t as high as when they started out, considering for both it was their 13th and 14th games of the day, not even taking into account what might have been happening with lane-conditioning oil.

A total of 73 boys took to the lanes at the start of the day from all around the UPBC, which also includes the host Mountaineers and Escanaba, Gladstone and Calumet.

Each rolled three games before an initial cut was made to 48 bowlers, who threw three more games to come up with a qualifying score.

That’s when just the top 16 scorers advanced to match play, seeded by their score for two-game knockout matches until the winner was determined.

Ryan qualified in a solid third place with a six-game score of 1,193, a 198.8 average, on games of 210, 214, 178, 194, 235 and 162.

That seeded him No. 3, where he opened match play with a 340-317 victory over No. 14 Gavin DuBose of Iron Mountain.

Next he faced No. 6 Desmond Gleason of Marquette and took a 398-308 victory to reach the all-Marquette County semifinals.

He then took on his teammate, No. 15 seed Korsman, and won that one 367-312 to make the finals against Grover.

All told, Ryan averaged 191.6 over his 14 games.

Grover was the No. 1 qualifier with 1,237, a nifty average of 206.2, after he shot 221, 209, 172, 239, 226 and 170.

He started out against No. 16 seed Logan Faucett of IM, winning that match 349-332, then took out No. 8 Jeremiah Tobias of Westwood 323-307.

Advancing to the semis, Grover then downed No. 12 seed Buckmaster of Marquette 327-297 to make the finals.

Grover, also bowling 14 games just like Ryan, averaged 177.2 altogether.

Buckmaster rolled 975 in his qualifying, beating out the first bowler to miss the cut, 17th-place Chase Hallman of IM, by 28 pins. Buckmaster rolled 126, 158, 166, 156, 208 and 161, a 162.5 average.

In his first match, he defeated No. 5 Johnny Jestila of Westwood in the closest match of the day, 312-310. That put Buckmaster up against No. 13 Lucas Steadman of IM for a 356-263 victory and advancement to the semis.

Korsman had the closest call among area bowlers to make match play, beating out the first nonqualifier by just six pins with 953 on games of 179, 182, 135, 152, 178 and 127 and an average of 158.8.

But he took advantage of everyone starting over at zero with an opening 389-321 win over No. 2 Roman Yuhas of Westwood, then tacked on a 334-253 victory past No. 10 Billy Britton of Escanaba in the next round for his advancement to the semis.

Tobias and Gleason were also first-round winners in match play.

Tobias, qualifying eighth with 1,022, rolled qualifying games of 152, 197, 177, 143, 167 and 186 for a 170.3 average, then opened with a 390-323 win over No. 9 Nick Lyons of Marquette.

Gleason, the No. 6 qualifier with 1,043, hit 158, 201, 175, 181, 180 and 148 in qualifying to average 173.8, before taking down No. 11 Kydan Dean of L’Anse 352-341 in his first match.

Yuhas, at No. 2 in qualifying, bowled 152, 187, 223, 215, 244 and 202 for 1,223, just 14 pins behind Grover’s No. 1 qualifying pace as Yuhas averaged 203.8.

Dan Gramprie of Marquette qualified fourth with 1,119, a 186.5 average, with lines of 168, 199, 207, 143, 209 and 193. He lost to No. 13 Steadman in his opening match 332-309.

Jestila qualified fifth with 1,061, a 176.8 average, with games of 178, 169, 181, 177, 150 and 206.

Lyons came in ninth in qualifying with 1,016, a 169.3 average, by shooting 177, 132, 203, 150, 196 and 158.

Dean was 11th with 985, averaging 164.2, by qualifying with 158, 176, 175, 139, 138 and 199.

There were some hard-luck cases out there like Hallman of IM, who missed the match-play cutoff by a single pin against his teammate and No. 16-seeded Faucett.

Seven Marquette County bowlers all finished within 40 pins of each other and within 60 of making the cut.

In 18th place was Aiden Gentz of Marquette with a six-game total of 927 and high game of 208; 19th-place Braden Rose of Marquette, who shot 925 and high game of 172; and 20th-place Mason Burke of Westwood, with 919 and high of 175.

There was also 21st-place Jordan Kolbus of Marquette, with 909 and 186 high; 22nd-place TJ Davis of Marquette, with 907 and 191 high; 24th-place Devin Fortin of Marquette, with 896 and 165 high; and 25th-place Will LeClair of Westwood, with 890 and 159 high.

Another dozen county bowlers also made the first cut to the top 48.

Travis Clark of I-N was 28th with 867, Jared Waterman of Westwood 29th with 865, Nicholas Bannister of I-N 30th with 864, Eli Connors of Westwood 33rd with 848, Easton Lefebvre of Marquette 34th with 823, Andy Ostola of Westwood tied for 35th with 819, Louis Trudell of Westwood 37th with 815, Wyatt Steele of Westwood 38th with 813, Parker Cody of Westwood 39th with 802, Xavier Bannister of I-N 40th with 775, Aaden Blandford of Marquette 43rd with 764 and Ethan Demarius of I-N 48th with 682.

The UPBC has one Saturday of bowling left, today’s team finals for both boys and girls teams, at River Rock Lanes in Ishpeming that is scheduled to start at 10 a.m.

Next week will be MSHAA regionals to be held at various Lower Peninsula locations, team competition on Friday and singles next Saturday. And those who excel there go onto the state finals another week later, with the expected format to also be team on Friday and singles on Saturday at other downstate centers.

Story contents based on email received from Marquette assistant coach Maria Virch. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.