After Marquette County schools claimed every singles championship-round finalist in boys and girls singles tournaments held well away from their home lanes the previous two weeks, Iron Mountain turned the tables for southern U.P. teams at the team finals, capturing the boys championship and finishing runner-up in the girls after coming to Marquette County.

But bowling at its home lanes, it was Westwood that won the girls title along with a third one for “X” teams — those teams made up of bowlers not on their schools’ main boys and girls squads.

Not all UPBC schools had an X team, but it was only the Patriots that actually had two of them, though they were consolidated into one for the team finals.

All of the five-person teams — though substituting with a nonstarter or two could be done during play — rolled a qualifying round consisting of eight Baker-style games in addition to two “regular” games. In the Baker system, bowlers alternate frames to come up with a single-game score, while regular games consist of each bowler shooting their own game.

Westwood High School won the girls team championship tournament in the Upper Peninsula Bowling Conference held at River Rock Lanes in Ishpeming on Saturday. Seeded No. 1 for the semifinals, the Patriots defeated Iron Mountain 3-0 in the championship match. From left are bowlers Rosalyn Bonin, Hailey Rautio, Fara Bjork and Hailey Smail; head coach Barrie Rae (in back); and bowlers Avarie Vial, Isabelle Moebius, Olivia Letson and Julianne Yohe. (Photo courtesy Maria Virch)

It totaled up to 18 games per team in qualifying, slightly more than what a five-bowler team in a league that rolls three games a night would do in 15 games.

The UPBC also presented season awards, most notably the Girls Dream Team and Boys Dream Team that took into account all the bowling done since early December.

And like the singles tourneys, every spot, including an honorable mention for a total of 12, was taken by Marquette County bowlers.

The girls honor squad includes Sara Harvey of the Ishpeming-Negaunee combined team, Hayden Schetter of Marquette, and Averie Vial, Olivia Letson and Fara Bjork of Westwood. I-N’s Annabelle Stakvel was named the honorable mention.

For the boys dreamers, there was Killean Ryan of I-N, Daniel Gramprie of Marquette, and Jeremiah Tobias, Roman Yuhas and Johnny Jestila of Westwood. The Sentinels’ Desmond Gleason earned honorable mention.

Westwood High School won the “X” team championship tournament in the Upper Peninsula Bowling Conference held at River Rock Lanes in Ishpeming on Saturday. Seeded No. 2 for the semifinals, the Patriots defeated Marquette 3-1 in the championship match. From left are bowlers Andy Ostola, Parker Cody and Nathan Bone; assistant coach Pat Gingras; head coach Barrie Rae; and bowlers Connor Thomas, Jared Waterman and Sam Hillman. (Photo courtesy Maria Virch)

With the UPBC season completed, high school bowlers have MHSAA regionals scheduled for this weekend, with top finishers advancing to the state finals the following weekend.

The team portion of each regional will be held today, with singles going Saturday. State finals are tentatively scheduled with the same format, just one week later.

The Division 2 regional at the Gaylord Bowling Center in Gaylord will include UPBC members Marquette, I-N, Iron Mountain, Escanaba and Calumet; Division 3 at Spare Time Lanes in Cheboygan has Westwood, Gladstone and Menominee; and Division 4 at Thunder Bowl Lanes in Alpena includes L’Anse.

The state finals in Division 2 are scheduled for Century Bowl in Waterford, Division 3 at Jax 60 in Jackson and Division 4 at Skore Lanes in Taylor.

Here are details on the UPBC team finals:

Girls

The I-N team got off to a roaring start in the opening part of qualifying with the highest Baker game of the day — including all boys, girls and X teams — with 223, then adding the next-highest girls Baker score of 179.

Westwood was down 105 pins at that point, but slowly chipped away at that deficit, just about pulling even by the end of the fifth game and roaring ahead for a 57-pin cushion by the end of that part of qualifying.

Westwood had 1,195 in Baker, a 149.4 average in this notoriously hard way to get high scores. Their games were 158, 139, 160, 149, 157, 157, 130 and 145.

Ishpeming-Negaunee was at 1,138 and Iron Mountain had 1,017 with all other teams between 839 and 890. I-N’s Baker games were 223, 179, 148, 100, 114, 108, 113 and 152.

The Patriots tacked on regular five-bowler games of 783 and 770, a 1,553 addition, to finish at 2,748 for the No. 1 seed in the semifinals. In all, it was a 152.7 average.

That was more than a hundred pins ahead of No. 2 I-N, which hit 713 and 764 in regular bowling, a 1,477 total to end with 2,615. Their average was 145.3.

IM was third with a 1,325 regular total and 2,342 in all, while Marquette got the final qualifying spot in fourth, adding to a Baker total of 876 with regular games of 582 and 623 for 1,205 there and 2,081 altogether.

The Sentinels came in 60 pins ahead of the first team to miss the semifinals cut, Calumet, which had 839 Baker, 545 and 637 games in regular bowling, and a 2,021 sum total.

L’Anse was a close sixth with 890 Baker, 515 and 605 regular, and 2,010 total, while Gladstone was seventh with 883 Baker, 480 and 492 regular, and 1,855 in all.

In the all-Baker semifinals and finals, No. 1 Westwood won its semi with a 3-0 sweep of No. 4 Marquette, winning 153-116, 117-107 and 155-123.

No. 3 IM also pulled off a 3-0 sweep of No. 2 I-N, 140-133, 127-107 and 163-155.

And in the title match, Westwood completed its clean sweep with a 3-0 blanking of IM, 160-108, 144-99 and 176-146.

Boys

Westwood also won the boys qualifying, but by a much closer 32-pin margin before being tested and prevailing in its semifinal.

The Patriots also got off to a bit of a slow start in Baker, sitting third after each of the first four games before catching and tying Ishpeming-Negaunee at the end of the fifth game.

By the end of that part, though, Iron Mountain actually emerged on top by eight pins with 1,329 to Westwood’s 1,321. I-N was third with 1,267 and Marquette a strong fourth with 1,192. None of the other teams were within a hundred pins of the Sentinels.

Westwood’s Baker games were 167, 153, 145, 204, 174, 173, 123 and 182, while IM’s were 161, 179, 167, 183, 138, 181, 177 and 143.

I-N’s Baker rang up as 188, 151, 171, 184, 149, 136, 142 and 146, with Marquette’s being 169, 125, 98, 146, 200, 123, 184 and 147.

In regular bowling, Westwood shone, putting together games of 714 and the day’s top regular game of 889 for 1,603 in that section and a 2,924 grand total to earn the No. 1 seed for the semifinals.

I-N actually had a slightly higher regular total than the Patriots, but not enough to make up for its deficit from Baker. I-N had games of 754 and 871 for 1,625, totaling 2,892 to get the No. 2 spot.

Iron Mountain faded a bit in regular, hitting games of 698 and 730 for 1,428 and 2,757 altogether to become No. 3 for the semis.

And Marquette again hung in with a better regular total than IM, 1,494 on games of 731 and 763, to easily slip into the No. 4 position with 2,686.

That was nearly 200 pins ahead of the first team out, Gladstone, which had 1,087 Baker and 710 and 694 in regular bowling for a total of 2,491.

Escanaba was sixth with 1,054 Baker, 656 and 706 regular games and 2,416 all told.

Calumet grabbed seventh with 888 Baker, 631 and 634 regular games and a 2,153 total.

L’Anse came in eighth with 977 Baker, 554 and 598 regular and 2,129 in all, while Menominee was ninth with 628 Baker, 358 and 304 regular for 1,290 altogether.

No. 1 Westwood and No. 4 Marquette had the most interesting match of the day, going the maximum five games in the semis before the Patriots prevailed 3-2.

The teams alternated victories throughout, Westwood opening with a 167-146 win, then the Sentinels on top 150-144, WHS taking the next 204-169, Marquette the one after 169-149 to even the match 2-2, and Westwood in the deciding game, 201-181.

The other semi was more ho-hum by No. 3 IM with a sweep over No. 2 I-N 3-0, the Mountaineers winning 201-192, 199-158 and 168-135.

In the finals, IM completed its two-round sweep, winning 3-0 over Westwood on matchups of 158-151, 205-138 and 162-151.

X teams

Where more team depth allowed higher-average bowlers to end up on these “X” teams, Marquette dominated qualifying from start to finish, taking control in Baker with 1,276, a more than 250-pin advantage on second-place Westwood, then piling up another 164-pin edge in regular bowling for a 420-pin win in this round.

The Sentinels rolled Baker games of 157, 116, 182, 145, 205, 122, 205 and 144, then tacked on regular games of 749 and 700 for 1,449 there to total 2,725.

Westwood was second with 1,020 Baker, its games being 132, 136, 129, 128, 136, 133, 102 and 124, then regular lines of 614 and 671 for 1,285 to finish with 2,305.

L’Anse was well back in third with 843 Baker, regular games of 524 and 556 for 1,080 to come up with 1,923, while IM claimed the last semifinal position in fourth with 741 Baker, 546 and 513 regular for 1,059, to sum it up to 1,800.

No. 5 I-N, the first team out of the semis, actually had an advantage on IM in Baker, totaling 770 there, but came up a bit shy in regular bowling, putting together games of 410 and 484 for 894 and 1,664 total.

And Gladstone earned seventh place with 687 Baker, 512 and 425 regular and a 1,624 total.

With all scores wiped clean for the semis, Westwood took advantage.

The No. 2 Patriots won their semi over No. 3 L’Anse 3-0, 141-126, 133-102 and 147-118, while No. 1 MSHS prevailed over No. 4 IM, also 3-0 on wins of 155-93, 136-76 and 169-82.

That brought the top two teams together in the finals, and Westwood needed four games to come up champion, 3-1. The Pats won the first two games 108-82 and 155-151, Marquette taking the third, 188-158, but Westwood prevailing in Game 4, 161-134.

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