Bowling Finals: Ready to Roll
March 1, 2012
Few MHSAA sports end with as many unexpected champions as emerge at the Bowling Finals, which will be contested this weekend at four sites around the state.
Below is our rundown of some of the favorites in each division -- and guesses at a few surprises as well.
Team competition is Friday and individuals roll Saturday. Click for boys qualifiers and girls qualifiers, and results for both as they come in.
Girls Division 1
Team: Of the top five teams in the final rankings, only one didn’t qualify for this weekend. Reigning champion New Baltimore Anchor Bay is back, but runner-up Taylor Kennedy moved into Division 2 this season. Top-ranked Davison, No. 3 Muskegon Mona Shores and No. 5 Brighton all won Regionals, and unranked Oxford did as well – ahead of four ranked teams.
Singles: Three of last season’s top four are back: reigning champion Tori Ferris of Portage Central, runner-up Kate Gladstone of Lake Orion and semifinalist Danielle Robson of Howell. Ferris won her Regional ahead of three placers from Davison, but finished just 12 pins better than senior Erin Brown – whose 531 series was third-best in the state this season according to the Michigan High School Interscholastic Bowling Coaches Association. Brighton senior Marissa Campbell and Ann Arbor Huron’s Allison Morris tied for just fifth at their Regional, but both have been among the top scorers this winter; Morris posted the fourth and eighth-best series in the state.
Boys Division 1
Team: Reigning champion Macomb Dakota is ranked just No. 6 and finished as a Regional runner-up to unranked Utica. Wayne Memorial also is unranked, but was a semifinalist last season and posted the top Regional team score in all of Division 1 by 54 pins. Top-ranked Davison had the second-best Regional score, and No. 2-ranked Sterling Heights Stevenson also qualified with a third-place finish at its Regional.
Singles: This might seem a little wide open with none of last season’s semifinalists back. The favorite could be Brownstown-Woodhaven senior Dustin Rose – his Regional score of 1,419 was 40 pins better than anyone else’s in Division 1, and his high two-game series this season of 548 is eighth-best in the state. Watch for Wayne Memorial senior Elliot Arnold, another Regional champ whose two-game 577 is the second-highest series statewide this season. Davison senior Tyler Greene and New Baltimore Anchor Bay seniors Shawn Bibee and Sean Mariotti also could be in the mix.
Girls Division 2
Team: All four semifinalists from 2011 are back, with reigning champion Charlotte, top-ranked Tecumseh and No. 2 Flint Kearsley all Regional champions last weekend. Charlotte was unranked entering the postseason, but placed three individual Finals qualifiers – and that group didn’t include arguably the team’s top two bowlers. Kearsley has four individual Finals qualifiers, while Tecumseh and Bay City John Glenn – last season’s other semifinalist – also has three. Also qualifying as a team was Taylor Kennedy, last season’s Division 1 runner-up.
Singles: This field is loaded, led by reigning champion and Flint Kearsley senior Lindsey Ploof. She finished second to Lapeer East senior Justice Schihl at the Regional. Tecumseh’s Jordan Richard made the semifinals last season and won her Regional last weekend – and her 548 series was second-best in the state this season. Charlotte sophomore Ciarra Landry has three of the top 22 series in the state this winter – and finished only eighth in a strong Regional.
Boys Division 2
Team: This is ripe for a surprise champ. Top-ranked Richland Gull Lake qualified, but after finishing only third at its Regional. No. 2-ranked Owosso and No. 3 Taylor Truman both failed to make the Final. Bay City John Glenn was a semifinalist last season and won its Regional with a Division 2-best 4,256 despite coming into the postseason ranked only No. 8.
Singles: John Glenn senior Zach Fylling came in only seventh at his Regional, but is the reigning Division 2 champion. Hazel Park senior Charles Zelechowski turned in the best Regional score in Division 2, a 1,323, although South Lyon East senior Anthony Dinsmore was just behind, both at the Regional and statewide, with a 1,319. Watch for Richland Gull Lake sophomore Collin Rickey. He won his Regional with a 1,305, and posted the third (568) and tied for fifth-best (555) two-game series in the state this season.
Girls Division 3
Team: All four semifinalists from 2011 are back, with Wyoming Kelloggsville again ranked No. 1 after winning the championship last season. Kelloggsville won its regional last week, as did Ovid-Elsie – which although unranked, also made the semifinals last season and beat No. 4 Richmond in the process of qualifying for Friday’s Final. In fact, Ovid-Elsie and Richmond had the highest Regional scores in all of Division 3, both by more than 400 pins.
Singles: Last season quarterfinalists Rebecca Jasinowski of Jackson Lumen Christi and Jessica Lubbers of Kelloggsville are contenders. Juniors Loretta Hinds of Battle Creek Pennfield and Lindsay Risden of Flat Rock both made match play last season and won Regionals last weekend. Also, watch for Ovid-Elsie senior Leah Hartman, whose 524 series was fifth-best in the state this winter
Boys Division 3
Team: Among regional champions were top-ranked Muskegon Orchard View and No. 3 Richmond, but also unranked Flat Rock and Birch Run – the teams Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard beat on the way to winning last season’s title in the semifinals and championship match, respectively. The top Regional score of 3,936 came from No. 6 Pinconning.
Singles: Ishpeming senior Spencer Leivo and Grand Rapids Catholic Central senior Henry Huvaere both made the semifinals in 2011 and are back – Huvaere missed the championship match by only five pins last season. Nine bowlers total rolled at least 1,200 at their Regionals, with Almont senior Jason McKelvey topping the list at 1,254. His series of 543 was 11th-best in the state this winter.
Girls Division 4
Team: All but one of the top 10 teams entering the postseason are in the field. After finishing 1-2 at last season’s Final, Vandercook Lake and Sandusky are ranked as such again. The only Regional won by an unranked team was claimed by Ithaca – but the Yellowjackets made the 2011 semifinals and are led by a veteran in senior Farrand Schneider, an individual Regional champ.
Singles: Although the reigning champion is not in this weekend’s field, the runner-up and two other semifinalists return. Sandusky senior Lillie Miller will attempt to move up one more spot after losing last year’s individual Final by just nine pins – and falling to teammate Bryanna Mater in last week’s Regional by 14. The other two returning semifinalists had mixed success at Regionals – Grandville Calvin Christian senior Allison Velzen won hers, while Bellaire junior Kristen Schlegel tied for fifth at her tournament. The high Regional scorer in Division 4 was Vandercook Lake sophomore Malloree Ambs, with a 1,231.
Boys Division 4
Team: Sandusky fell by only 24 pins to eventual champion Grass Lake in a Quarterfinal last season, but entered the postseason ranked No. 1 and posted the second-highest Regional score in this division. But no team in Division 4 last week got within 300 pins of No. 7 Rogers City, which posted a 4,225 and also made the quarterfinals last season. Reigning runner-up St. Louis is back, as is semifinalist Bad Axe. And don’t forget about No. 2-ranked Pewamo-Westphalia, another Regional champion.
Singles: This could be wide open as well. Rogers City junior Zach Hazel, Riverview Gabriel Richard senior Justin McClain and Sandusky senior Tyler Johnston are the only three of 16 from last season’s Division 4 Final match play who qualified this time – and none made the 2011 Quarterfinals. Hazel had the second-highest Division 4 Regional score last weekend, 1,257, behind only senior brother Justin Hazel’s 1,331.
PHOTO courtesy of High School Sports Scene.
Flint Corridor Powers Girls Bowling's Best
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
December 13, 2017
Girls bowling teams in the Flint area do not need to drive far to find high-level competition.
A 28-mile route can be taken from reigning Division 3 champion Birch Run – just north of the Saginaw/Genesee county line – to Division 1 champion Davison. And along the way, one can see 2016-17 Division 2 champion Flint Kearsley out the window.
It’s quite a consolidation of power in a single sport, but one that shouldn’t be too surprising to those who follow bowling.
“Whenever you think of bowling alleys,” Birch Run coach Teddy Villarreal said, “you think of either the Flint area or Detroit.”
The majority of girls bowling teams in the state will spend their seasons chasing these three teams. Some – including Birch Run, which claimed its first MHSAA title last winter – have been doing that with Kearsley and Davison for years.
“Whenever you go to a tournament and you hear Kearsley and Davison – remember when (Michael) Jordan was playing basketball? That is what it’s like whenever you’re facing Kearsley and facing Davison,” Villarreal said.
The Kearsley and Davison bowling rivalry is a friendly one.
The two schools are about 10 miles apart. Rob Ploof, who coaches both the Kearlsey boys and girls, and Davison boys coach Bob Tubbs stood in each other’s weddings as the best man.
Their girls teams have mirrored each other in recent years, each having won five of the past six MHSAA titles in their respective divisions. Since the frequent meetings between former Big Nine Conference foes now happen in nonconference tournaments, they serve mostly to benefit both teams in a competitive sense.
“We see them at a lot of tournaments, and we’re kind of close to their team, I would say,” Kearsley senior Barbara Hawes said. “We’re rivals, but I feel like it’s just a friendly competition, and it’s competition that makes us better because our scores are so close and we have the same end goal.”
They weren’t always the teams being chased, of course. Early in his tenure, Ploof made a point to seek out Sterling Heights Stevenson, which was a state power in the mid-to-late 2000s.
“When I started my first year of coaching, Sterling Heights Stevenson had won a state title, so I wanted to find out who the coach was and ask him how he did it,” Ploof said. “He said, ‘Get your kids into tournaments, and get them good competition.’ I said, ‘Which tournaments are you guys in, because I’m going to those ones.’”
The Kearsley and Davison girls each reached the pinnacle in 2012, claiming their first MHSAA Finals titles and starting their current runs of dominance.
While seeking out top-notch competition has been a big part of the rise of both programs, perhaps the biggest has been the youth bowling scene in the Flint area, which Ploof said is tremendous. He credits a lot of that to Jim Teuber, the owner of Richfield Bowl, which serves as Kearsley’s home venue. Ploof said Teuber runs a youth program that busses about 150 kids to the bowling alley to learn the game at a young age.
Middle school programs in the area also seeing high turnout, which feeds into the high schools.
“The whole Flint area is kind of on board with that,” Ploof said. “Last year, we had 50 teams in our program -- Kearsley had six, Davison had five, Grand Blanc has six teams -- that definitely makes bowling for kids in our area better. That’s why you’re seeing the success from our area; it’s starting with the middle school kids.”
Competing for Kearsley is something bowlers look forward to from an early age. This season, 22 girls tried out for the team, allowing Ploof to field multiple junior varsity squads.
“I think that it’s what everyone aspires to get to throughout their years,” Hawes said. “We have a lot of youth programs, and most of the kids that work at the bowling alley are the high school bowlers who are like coaches. In our bowling alley, we have the mini state title trophies, and we have our banners up, so they see those things at a young age.”
While the bowlers at Birch Run don’t aspire to be members of the Kearsley team, they have been looking to get to that level. There’s still a ways to go to achieve that type of sustained success, but the Panthers feel they’re at least on the right path.
“The bowling teams before us (at Birch Run) were pretty good, and definitely set high standards,” Birch Run junior Madison Hoffman said. “I think we’ve definitely improved, and you could say we definitely achieved a lot of our goals, and we really set the standards higher.”
Hoffman added that she and her teammates believe they can compete now when they see Kearsley or Davison in a tournament, which is a big step forward.
It’s something Hawes and her Kearsley teammates welcome.
“I think it’s really cool to see how teams are looking up to us, because we’ve worked so hard to get to this point,” Hawes said. “It’s really cool to see people trying to compete at a higher level.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) The Flint Kearsley girls bowling team hoists its Division 2 championship trophy last season. (Middle) Birch Run’s girls celebrated their first MHSAA Finals title last winter. (Below) Like Kearsley, Davison has built a string of successful finishes in Division 1. (Davison and Kearsley photos courtesy of those schools’ bowling programs; Birch Run’s photo courtesy of Teddy Villarreal.)