All in all, four area programs from Marquette and Baraga counties — actually eight teams, since each program has both a girls and boys team — are sending five of their teams and five individual bowlers to the finals later this week at Lower Peninsula locations.

Last weekend, Marquette and the combined Ishpeming-Negaunee program competed in a Division 2 regional in Gaylord, Westwood was at a Division 3 regional at Cheboygan, and L’Anse rolled at a Division 4 region in Alpena.

Each regional event included up to eight teams and up to 67 individual bowlers vying for a limited number of slots available at the state finals in four MHSAA divisions.

At those finals, boys and girls teams will tentatively compete on Friday and singles competition is scheduled for Saturday at each location.

The Ishpeming-Negaunee boys team shot the second highest score to advance to the MHSAA state team bowling finals from a Division 2 regional that was held in Gaylord on Friday. In front are bowlers Travis Clark, left, and Alex Ciupak. Standing from left are assistant coach Jason Annala; bowlers Aries Korsman, Nicholas Bannister, Aiden Taisto, Killean Ryan and Xavier Bannister; and head coach Mike Wilkins. The top two teams at regionals advanced to the state finals. Ryan also finished fifth among 67 bowlers in boys singles the following day to make those state finals, too, as the top seven scorers advanced. (Photo courtesy Marquette assistant bowling coach Maria Virch)

The divisions that area teams represent will each have at least one team and at least one individual from area schools at the state finals. Division 2 takes place at Century Bowl in Waterford just west of Pontiac, Division 3 at Jax 60 in Jackson, and Division 4 at Skore Lanes in Taylor just southwest of Detroit.

Because each division included eight regionals, organizers had to severely limit how many actual bowlers would be allowed to advance from each regional to the finals.

That’s because the sport has exploded in popularity over the past two decades, the MHSAA website saying there are 368 bowling programs statewide competing in this year’s tourneys.

Each regional allowed its top two teams out of between eight and 12 squads to advance to the states, then also sent forward just seven individual bowlers in fields ranging from 42 to 67 bowlers in singles.

In the team tourney, squads rolled in a format quite similar to a regular Upper Peninsula Bowling Conference match during the regular season — eight “Baker” style games, where the five teammates roll alternating frames to come up with a single-game score, then two “regular” games where everybody bowls their own 10-frame game.

Two area girls, both seniors, qualified for the MHSAA state singles bowling finals from a Division 2 regional that was held in Gaylord on Saturday. Ishpeming-Negaunee’s Sara Harvey, left, placed third and Marquette’s Hayden Schetter was sixth among 50 bowlers competing in singles at the Gaylord Bowling Center. As part of the top seven singles scorers, they advance to compete at Century Bowl in Waterford, near Pontiac, this weekend. (Photo courtesy Marquette assistant bowling coach Maria Virch)

Singles was a simple six games, high composite scores advancing.

Here is a rundown, division by division:

Division 2

At the Gaylord Bowling Center where Marquette and Ishpeming-Negaunee competed, one team — the I-N boys — and three individuals advanced to the state finals.

Individually, I-N junior Killean Ryan, who recently won the UPBC boys singles tournament title, placed fifth in the boys singles event to make the states by 30 pins ahead of the first bowler to miss the cut.

He rolled 1,183, a 197.2 average, and notably was the only non-senior boy to advance. His games were 191, 216, 171, 226, 180 and 199.

He finished 156 pins behind regional champion Stefano Clifford of Bay City Western, whose 1,339 total was an average of 223.2 per game with lines ranging between 214 and 237.

Ryan also finished 30 pins ahead of the hard-luck, near-miss story of the regionals, senior Daniel Gramprie of Marquette, who finished eighth with 1,153 after shooting 210, 158, 184, 218, 192 and 191, a 192.2 average.

He missed the cut to the finals by just four pins behind No. 7 qualifier Cody Miner of Bay City John Glenn with 1,157.

For the girls, I-N senior Sara Harvey placed third in singles with 1,106, only missing first place by 22 pins that was posted by BC John Glenn’s Lacy Jamrog with 1,128.

Harvey, who averaged 184.3, put together quite a consistent string of games, rolling 169, 199, 182, 189, 187 and 180.

Marquette senior Hayden Schetter, meanwhile, cut it a big closer, qualifying sixth with 1,000 on games of 158, 162, 167, 194, 150 and 169, a 166.7 average.

She finished 31 pins ahead of the first bowler out, No. 8 Alivia Johnroe of BC Western with 969.

Ryan’s I-N boys team also qualified for the state finals in that part of the event, finishing second among 12 teams with 3,247. That was 165 pins behind top qualifier BC Western, but more importantly, 136 pins ahead of the first team out, BC John Glenn.

Individual scores in team competition weren’t available, but I-N rolled Baker games of 149, 194, 178, 203, 129, 215, 181 and 155, then shot regular games of 880 and 963.

Marquette’s boys finished fourth with 2,971, 276 pins behind I-N’s cutoff score to advance. The Sentinels rolled Baker games of 148, 158, 168, 160, 158, 162, 128 and 204, adding regular games of 882 and 803.

Also from the UPBC, the Iron Mountain boys were sixth with 2,898, 73 behind Marquette, while Escanaba was eighth with 2,689 and Calumet 11th with 2,230.

For girls teams, I-N finished fifth with 2,535, missing the second-place cutoff by 365 pins, while Marquette was seventh with 2,239.

I-N had an eight-game Baker total of 1,050 and regular games of 767 and 718, while the Sentinels totaled 1,074 for Baker with regular games of 550 and 615.

The two Bay City schools grabbed the girls qualifying spots, BC John Glenn first with 3,061 and BC Western second with 2,900.

From the UPBC, Iron Mountain was fourth with 2,539, just four pins ahead of I-N, while Calumet was eighth with 2,199 as Escanaba didn’t field a team.

In singles, two of Gramprie’s boys teammates had the two best area scores after him, starting with senior Desmond Gleason finishing 16th with 1,078, 79 pins out of the last qualifying spot as he shot 188, 141, 134, 227, 167 and 221.

Sentinels senior Devin Fortin was 27th with 1,005, 152 pins out of qualifying, with a high game of 188, I-N sophomore Aries Korsman was 33rd with 980 and a high game of 182, and Marquette junior Sean Buckmaster came right after in 34th with 975 and high of 191.

A pair of I-N freshmen were just a few pins apart. Aiden Taisto was 39th, shooting 938 with a high of 207, while Alex Ciupak was 40th, scoring 934 with a high of 172.

Then came Marquette senior Nicholas Lyons in 42nd with 926 and high of 183, I-N junior Xavier Bannister 53rd with 881 and high of 174, and I-N junior Nicholas Bannister 56th with 829 and high of 153.

In girls singles, I-N sophomore Alaina Eagle tied for 14th with 944, missing the seventh-place cut by 30 pins. She shot 183, 177, 157, 159, 126 and 142.

Junior teammate Annabelle Stakvel was 21st with 887 and a high game of 187, as I-N freshman Rylan Foisie was 26th with 816 and high of 177, while Marquette senior Ava Jennings was right behind her in 27th with 808 and a high of 156 twice.

Also from the area, I-N freshman Reagan Ronsom was 33rd with 765 and a high of 159, I-N senior Skylar Guizzetti 36th with 736 and high of 142, Marquette junior Maelynn Williams 37th with 725 and high of 158, Sentinels junior Rayanna Gardner 39th with 710 and high of 133, and MSHS sophomore Margarita Villarello 43rd with 676 and high of 154.

Division 3

At Spare Time Lanes in Cheboygan, Westwood had the most regional success of any area team, qualifying both its boys and girls teams and a boy and girl in singles, too.

Each Patriot team was second in the competition, the boys having the closest call as they only finished 11 pins ahead of the first team to miss the cut.

The Westwood boys rolled 3,111 as Standish-Sterling finished third with 3,100. The Pats had Baker games of 129, 145, 190, 170, 143, 146, 192 and 192, then added regular games of 831 and 973.

That last regular game was easily the highest at the regional and lifted WHS past Standish, fourth-place Cheboygan and sixth-place West Branch Ogemaw Heights, each of whom they trailed entering the final game.

And Westwood nearly caught No. 1 qualifier Gladwin, which only finished 15 pins ahead of the Pats following the downstate team’s 775 final regular game.

The Westwood girls had a more sane path to its qualification — somewhat.

The Patriots rolled Baker games of 154, 130, 148, 121, 152, 149, 143 and 176, then tacked on regular games of 699 and 761 for 2,633.

That was 134 pins behind top qualifier Gladwin with 2,767, but also 83 pins ahead of the first team out, Ogemaw Heights.

However, like with the boys, there was a tight race for the final spot going into the last regular game. Westwood entered that game a single pin ahead of Ogemaw Heights and only 26 ahead of fifth-place Standish-Sterling.

Unlike all that team bowling, the boys singles competition was simply a coronation for Patriots senior Roman Yuhas. He wasn’t just the No. 1 qualifier with 1,319 — a lofty 219.8 average — but he beat out No. 2 Jacob Pluszczynski of Cheboygan by a whopping 127 pins as that latter bowler’s average was more than 20 pins a game less.

Yuhas rolled games of 200, 224, 236, 219, 247 and 193, also averaging exactly 220 his first three games and 219.7 the second three. And his 247 was the highest game of the day.

By the way, he was 209 pins ahead of the first bowler to miss the cut, too.

With Westwood the only area team at this regional, the next highest area score was, of course, posted by a teammate. Junior Camden Grover was 17th with 1,047, missing the cut by 83 pins, on games of 160, 151, 224, 160, 191 and 161.

Then came senior Johnny Jestila in 19th with 1,040 and high game of 210, senior Mason Burke tied for 23rd with 1,002 and high game of 198, sophomore Jeremiah Tobias 27th with 994 and high of 184, and senior Elijah Connors in 51st with 853 and high of 193.

The Patriots had amazingly consistent bowling in girls singles, with a qualifier and all six bowlers finishing in the top 21.

Senior Averie Vial qualified for the state finals by placing third at regionals with 993, a 165.5 average on games of 150, 161, 194, 146, 148 and 194.

She missed a tie for first place by 17 pins as senior Elena Martinez of Ogemaw Heights and freshman Alexis Farrow of Gladwin tied with 1,010, Martinez winning a rolloff to be crowned regional champion.

More importantly for Vial, she finished 52 pins ahead of the first score out of qualifying, an eighth-place score of 941.

Unfortunately, Westwood junior Fara Bjork was one more spot down in ninth with 907, missing seventh by 35. Bjork’s games were 166, 118, 133, 172, 190 and 128.

Pats senior Olivia Letson was 13th with 977 and high game of 163, junior Hailey Smail 14th with 874 and high of 181, senior Isabelle Moebius 15th with 859 and high of 162, and junior Julianne Yohe 21st with 833 and high of 164.

Division 4

At Thunder Bowl Lanes in Alpena, L’Anse was the lone area representative and sent its girls team and boys junior bowler Kydan Dean to the state finals, neither having a lot of wiggle room.

The Purple Hornets girls finished second in the team regional with 2,195, 67 pins ahead of the first team out, Oscoda, which had 2,128. L’Anse also was 274 behind No. 1 Whittemore-Prescott’s 2,469.

The Hornets had Baker games of 90, 130, 117, 122, 110, 128, 142 and 133, then added regular games of 651 and 572.

L’Anse did have almost 250 pins on all of the teams in fifth place and beyond.

In boys team competition, the Hornets were eighth with 2,210, more than 750 pins behind the final No. 2 qualifier Rogers City with 2,961, which only missed No. 1 Traverse City Christian by four pins.

L’Anse had Baker games of 121, 118, 103, 97, 148, 119, 116 and 129, adding regular games of 633 and 626.

Dean snuck into the boys singles final qualifying spot in seventh place with 1,035, 12 pins ahead of No. 8 Trevin Nagel of Houghton Lake and 163 pins in back of No. 1 Tanner Crick of Maple City Glen Lake.

Dean’s games were 202, 134, 195, 178, 170 and 156 for an average of 172.5.

Senior teammate David Paul Wilson was 18th with 917 to miss his teammate’s cut score by 118 as Wilson had games of 167, 132, 137, 176, 133 and 172.

Also for the Purple Hornets, junior Tyson Olson was 28th with 844 and high game of 159, junior Jerry Fish III tied for 41st with 746 and high of 157, junior Leon Schaafhausen 46th with 724 and high of 137, and senior Kaleb Geth 47th with 711 and high of 147.

L’Anse had a close call in girls singles as junior Willow Rexford finished 10th with 822, just 15 pins out of the No. 7 final qualifying spot. She averaged 137.0 on games of 134, 157, 126, 133, 165 and 107.

Senior teammate Natalie Laramore was 17th with 737, exactly 100 pins out of qualifying as her high game was 153.

Also for the Hornets, senior Laci Numinen was 27th with 665 and high of 121, junior Autumn Durant 28th with 663 and high of 132, sophomore Kylie Fish 31st with 633 and high of 128, and sophomore Kara Fish 38th with 563 and high of 128.

Story contents based on email received from an examination of the MHSAA website at www.mhsaa.com. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.