Campbell, Betts Believed Then Achieved
By
Steve Vedder
Special for MHSAA.com
March 2, 2019
MUSKEGON – Trusting the process led to a stunning ending to Dawson Campbell's season.
In fact, if you had asked the Cheboygan junior a few months ago if winning a Division 3 individual bowling championship was a possibility, Campbell's answer would have been a resounding no.
"Not a chance, no way," he said after accomplishing just that with a 427-363 win over Hopkins' Brenden Gossman in Saturday's championship match at Northway Lanes.
It's not that Campbell hasn't had success in the past. He was a two-time Finals qualifier heading into the season, but failed to advance past the qualifying stage his freshman and sophomore years. So what's the difference between those two tournaments and Saturday's? Campbell, seeded No. 6 among the 16 finalists, said it was a matter of trusting a grueling process that includes bowling 30 games a day, seven days a week for the last three years.
Campbell said the work left him more of a finished product. Proof of that, he said, came after he converted tough back-to-back 2-8 and 2-4-8-10 shots in the quarterfinal. It was that sort of success under pressure that led Campbell to believe he could win a Finals championship.
"After that I felt I had a chance," said Campbell, who averaged 188 across four match wins. "It just kinda happened. It shows if you put in enough practice, you can win and that one day you could become a state champion.
"I feel real happy, amazed. But I've put in the work. At the end of the day, it's part of my life."
Jenna Betts of Clare won the girls title with a 418-305 win over Lainey Meader of Coloma.
Like Campbell, Betts had minimal success in previous Finals tournaments, also never making it past the qualifying round. And also like Campbell, Betts believed winning the Division 3 championship was likely beyond her grasp.
"I had no reason whatsoever," she said of possessing title hopes. "But you have to believe in yourself and do the things you need to do to win."
Betts said much of her confidence came from Clare coach Kelli Dingo, whose chief work with her junior bowler was teaching fundamentals such as how to hold a ball and how to incorporate movement with her shot. The rest, Dingo said, was up to Betts.
"I taught her to bowl, not tell her," Dingo said. "She was very open (to coaching). Everyone knows she's an excellent bowler, and they expect a lot from her. She used to overthink the process; now she just bowls."
Betts, who also plays volleyball and runs track at Clare, said two things which struck home for her this season were gaining confidence and the ability to bowl consistently. Both were on display in winning Saturday, she said.
"I was very consistent. They weren't really high scores, but I was consistent," she said of averaging a 194 in her four wins. "You're going to have some high and low games, but confidence is a key."
Betts said her work with Dingo left her with the confidence she belonged among the top bowlers in Division 3.
"I think the past couple weeks that's grown by leaps and bounds, believing in myself," she said. "I feel incredibly happy now. Coach has given us all confidence, not just me. She's given us what we need to do well."
Click for full girls results and full boys results.
'Battle-Tested' Frankenmuth Sweeps Match Play to Clinch 1st Finals Title
By
Jeff Bleiler
Special for MHSAA.com
March 1, 2024
JACKSON – Ron Krueger is old school, so the Frankenmuth High School boys bowling team decided to throw it back to the 1980s.
It worked to perfection as the Eagles pounded the pins at Jax 60 in Jackson on Friday with urethane balls — made popular decades ago and experiencing a resurgence during the past few years — to win the Division 3 championship, the program's first Finals title.
Frankenmuth polished off a perfect day in the match play portion of the Final with a dominating performance over Milan, sweeping the best-of-five Baker match 221-126, 196-154 and 199-156.
“We got a little niche (with urethane), and it worked out really well,” Krueger said. I knew that if we could get in the top eight, with the new format being head-to-head best of five, we were tested throughout the year with Bakers.
“We’ve bowled a lot of tough tournaments and faced a lot of tough teams. And I knew we could compete against the top ones here today.”
The Eagles qualified fifth after eight Baker games and two regular games with 3,393 pins and dispatched Portland in the Quarterfinals with games of 154, 214 and 216. They topped top seed Gladwin in the Semifinals shooting 201, 134 and 201.
In the Final, they opened the first game with five of seven strikes while Milan struggled through seven opens over the first nine frames. About the only thing that could stop the Eagles was the gutter — which came into play at an inauspicious time during the second game. The team had a spare and four strikes in a row before throwing gutters on three of the next four shots.
That could have derailed a lesser team, but Frankenmuth responded with a double to win the second game comfortably.
“That’ll put a little stress on you, but again, that’s what this team is made of,” Krueger said. “The guy that came up behind steps up and throws a strike and we mark behind that and away we go.”
Frankenmuth made up for some of the disappointment from last year’s postseason when the Eagles missed qualifying for the Finals by 11 pins. Krueger said the team responded by returning to the lanes the next week and training the entire summer, showing resolve and commitment.
“I didn’t think from the beginning of the season we’d go on to actually qualify for the state championship,” said senior Mayson Knop, who last weekend won the singles competition at his Regional. “But we just kept qualifying first in tournaments over and over, and it was like, ‘Wow, we actually have a shot at this thing.’ And then absolutely popping off during match play, it’s an unbelievable feeling. There’s no words to even describe it.”
Knop will join junior teammates Miles Paetz and Liam Liddle at the Singles Final on Saturday, a week after they swept the top three Regional positions, and Krueger has a good feeling about how they will fare.
“All have a really good shot,” Krueger said. “They all threw a lot of balls today so they should feel real comfortable going into tomorrow. I think they’re prepared. All you want to do is make that cut.
“Once you get into the cut, the pressure is on and our guys are battle-tested.”
Milan qualified sixth with 3,358 and beat Blissfield in three straight, then advanced to the Final with a 3-1 victory over Midland Bullock Creek.