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Marquette, Ishpeming-Negaunee advance to state high school bowling finals

Steve Brownlee

Marquette Senior High School and the Ishpeming-Negaunee cooperative had almost equal numbers of qualifiers from MHSAA regional bowling tournaments into this weekend’s state finals.

And they along with Westwood and L’Anse all had close calls for making the cut.

The teams were spread around three regional events held in three divisions, based on the size of the school or schools involved.

Probably the hottest team right now is Marquette, which a week earlier also won the Upper Peninsula Bowling Conference team tournament in another state, Wisconsin, since tourney host Menominee bowls across the river in Marinette.

A team consisting of Alex Bianchi, Mason Garceau, Chris Henderson, Zac Holm, Hunter Negri and Liam Robinson rolled up a 115-pin victory over runner-up Iron Mountain, totaling 3,616 for three regular games (876-898-829) plus a half-dozen Baker games, where bowlers alternate frames to come up with single-game scores.

The Redmen finished Baker with a flourish, shooting 267, an especially high score considering the second-highest Baker game all day for any boys or girls team was 209.

Ishpeming was fourth with 3,214, Westwood seventh with 2,884, the Marquette B team 10th with 2,645 and L’Anse 11th with 2,405.

On the girls side, Ishpeming-Negaunee was runner-up with 3,123, just 53 pins behind the winning IM team. Marquette was fourth with 2,611, L’Anse fifth with 2,562 and Westwood sixth with 2,459.

Now onto the MHSAA regionals, where each site included 11 to 15 teams. The top three teams and top 10 individuals advance to the state finals this weekend, where team bowling takes place Friday and singles on Saturday.

At Bay City in Division 2, the Marquette boys won a title for the second straight week, powering to a 164-pin victory over IM, which also made the state finals.

I didn’t have a list of the bowlers who participated for MSHS, but looking at the singles competition for the next day, the same six boys took part in that as in the UPBC team tourney, so it should be a safe assumption that those half-dozen bowlers were also on hand for team bowling in Bay City.

The Redettes finished sixth in their team competition, missing the all-important third place by 385 pins in the same style of competition as the UPBC finals — three regular games and six Baker games.

In singles, Marquette’s Robinson not only advanced but won the regional singles title over 62 other bowlers, shooting 1,297 for six games — a 216.2 average — on games of 159, 238, 208, 224, 205 and 263.

Negri was third with 1,191, missing second place by just 10 pins and with a high game of 244, while Garceau was fifth with 1,189, just two pins behind Negri as he had a top game of 213 and three other games over 200.

Their three teammates finished in the top half of the field — Henderson was 16th with 1,022, missing the cut by 59 pins, Holm was 23rd with 972, and Bianchi was 29th with 954.

No Marquette girl made the top 10, but IM’s Brooke Fornetti, who won the UPBC girls singles title just a few weeks ago, was second overall with 1,082.

What the Redettes did have was the closest call of the weekend when Megan McIntire tied for 11th place with 976, missing that top-10 cutoff by three measly pins. Her games ranged between 146 and 182. That 146 was a higher lowest game than all but two of the girls who finished ahead of her.

Teammate Gloria Talley was 36th with 819, Amanda McIntire 44th with 772, Kaylee Reader 49th with 750, Rayna Fredy 54th with 696 and Grace Hoult 60th with 676.

In Division 3, the I-N girls repeated their UPBC team finish, taking second at Cheboygan to advance. They shot 3,408, missing regional champion Gladwin by just 73 pins and having 225 pins up on the first team out, Tawas Area.

The I-N boys finished tied for sixth with 3,442, 227 pins behind third-place Menominee.

In singles, three I-N girls finished next to each other in the standings — fifth and a tie for sixth. Carin Britton led the group with 1,082, including a 213 finish, to miss first place by 183 pins, but second place by only 33.

Tying were Caitlin Lee and Megan Wilkins, each with 1,033, Lee posting a top game of 205 and Wilkins 201.

Their teammates were also in the hunt. Kassidy Pirkola was 18th with 938, just 58 pins out of 10th, Hannah Tresedder was 21st with 910 and Jacklyn Lenten tied for 26th with 893.

One I-N boy made the singles cut — Hunter Peterson was second with 1,213, missing regional champ Hunter Bublitz of Pinconning by just 12 pins. Peterson had games ranging between 170 and 225.

Teammate Casey Hughes was 41st with 990, missing the cut by 132, while Mason Mitchell was 60th with 888, Darren Johnson 64th with 883, Nick Varda 69th with 827 and Ty Koski 73rd with 807.

In the Division 4 regional at Gaylord, no one from Westwood nor L’Anse made the state finals, but four bowlers were in the second 10 of bowlers to just miss the singles cut.

In team, Westwood was ninth in boys competition with 2,839, while for girls, L’Anse was fifth with 2,676 and Westwood sixth with 2,622. All three teams missed the top-3 cut by more than 400 pins.

In singles, however, the Patriots’ Brayden Vickstrom had the closest call, finishing 14th in the boys with 1,049, missing his cut by 36 pins.

Westwood’s Evan Rae was 37th with 927, L’Anse’s William Reynolds 41st with 889, Westwood’s Dylan Junak 45th with 867, L’Anse’s Ryan DesRochers tied for 49th with 848, L’Anse’s Aaron Sikkila 62nd with 754, L’Anse’s Sean Selden 67th with 709, Westwood’s John Strongman 72nd with 663, Westwood’s Dylan Bebee 74th with 626 and Westwood’s Tyler Thomas 75th with 576.

In girls singles, the Pats’ Mariah Cardoni was also 14th with 913, missing her cut by 45 pins.

In addition, Westwood’s Katelyn Axford was 18th with 874, L’Anse’s Jenna Messer tied for 19th with 871, Westwood’s Natalie Oates 26th with 824, L’Anse’s Niki Maki 27th with 823, Westwood’s Melissa Bauer 36th with 777, L’Anse’s Darla Mensch 41st with 738, L’Anse’s Nicole Maki 46th with 725, L’Anse’s Zoe Borgan 54th with 651, L’Anse’s Breonna Jones 69th with 525 and Westwood’s Sierra Pietro 71st with 461.

Division 2 finals take place at the Super Bowl in Canton, Division 3 at M-66 Bowl in Battle Creek and Division 4 at Royal Scot Lanes in Lansing.

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

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