D2 Singles Champs Stand a Cut Above
March 4, 2017
By Tim Robinson
Special for Second Half
CANTON — Three years ago, Angela Meadows was a freshman, determined to prove she belonged on a high school bowling team.
“The story is, her coach cut her,” Taylor Kennedy coach Dan Dutcher said. “Silly coach, right? That was me.”
“We joke about it now,” Meadows said. “No more hard feelings.”
Saturday, she made her point abundantly, and gloriously, clear.
Meadows won the Division 2 girls individual championship at Super Bowl in Canton, defeating Michaellia Merlo of Pontiac Notre Dame Prep 421-280 in the championship match.
Meadows said she never thought about when she clinched the match until the end, because her mind was elsewhere.
“I wasn’t thinking about it at all,” she said. “(Merlo) was so nice, and I was just having fun.”
It was a marked change of perspective for Meadows, who admits to a streak of pessimism.
“I was not pleased at all with my season,” she said. “As an individual, I did really bad until the state championship.
“I kept a positive attitude (Saturday),” she said, “and somehow proved myself wrong.”
After making the final round as the No. 9 seed, Meadows won her first match over No. 8 seed Madison Burdick of Charlotte and got a surge of confidence.
“I couldn’t believe I beat the first girl,” she said. “She was so good. After the first round, I realized I was going to win this thing.”
Meadows squeaked past Imari Blond of Flint Kearsley, 407-403, in the Quarterfinals, then slipped past Kaylee Collier of Jackson, 347-329, to reach the Final.
After she had been cut from the team as a freshman, “I was devastated,” Meadows said. “I was motivated and wanted to prove him wrong.”
Dutcher couldn’t have been happier.
“It was a perfect day,” he said. “A peak day and a perfect day for her. I wouldn’t say it was expected, but she expected that she would advance far. She had a very consistent day overall. Not too high or too low.”
That wasn’t the case afterward.
“I thought I was dreaming,” she said, laughing, about the award ceremony. ‘I still don’t think it’s real.”
In the boys competition, David Norhouse of Byron Center defeated reigning champion Austin Robison of Sturgis 458-413 in the Final. Robison won the first game 254-226, then slumped in the second game, which Norhouse won 232-149.
“Austin ended with seven or eight strikes in a row,” Byron Center coach Walt Dyer said of the first game. “David had five in a row to stay close, and got a good string going to pull away in the second game. It was very exciting.”
It was a rematch from last year, when Robison beat Norhouse in the first round en route to winning the Division 2 title.
“It came down to the ninth frame, and it was a great match,” Dyer said. “David had talked about it earlier, and said, ‘I can’t let him beat me again this year.’ And it came to fruition.”
Norhouse was the No. 3 seed Saturday. He got past Tecumseh’s Tavon Hastings in the first round, 403-392, then breezed past Nick Dimitri of South Lyon and Liam Robinson of Marquette in the Semifinals.
It was Norhouse’s fourth trip to the Singles Finals and his third trip into match play. Two years ago, as a sophomore, he finished the qualifying block first overall, only to lose to the No. 16 seed.
Robison, the No. 4 seed, got past Jacob Harvey of Adrian by 20 pins in the first round, beat Wyatt Mains of Three Rivers by 35 in the Quarterfinals and rallied to beat South Lyon’s Ryan Zaharia in the Semifinals.
Click for full girls results and full boys results.
PHOTO: Taylor Kennedy’s Angela Meadows (middle) stands with coaches Dan Dutcher and Dorene Bird.
TC Christian Girls Make History, St. Charles Boys Back on Top
By
Tim Robinson
Special for MHSAA.com
March 26, 2021
CANTON – One and done.
But that one was awfully sweet for the St. Charles boys bowling team.
The Bulldogs, who were shut out of the Singles Finals this year, put their energy into the Division 4 Team Finals at Super Bowl in Canton on Friday.
After a tense back-and-forth battle with No. 2 seed Manchester, the top-seeded Bulldogs pulled out their Finals title by just eight pins, 1,167-1,159, in a match that went down to the 10th frame between the anchor bowlers.
“It came down to the last two. Our anchorman doubled and theirs didn’t," St. Charles coach Mark Faupel said. “If their anchorman doubles, they win it. It was crazy.”
St. Charles had won the Baker competition by 43 pins, only to see Manchester win the regular games by 35, creating the razor-thin finish.
It was the second boys bowling Finals title for St. Charles, which also won in 2010, and the third overall Finals championship for the school. The Bulldogs won the Division 7 football crown in 1999.
Traverse City Christian’s girls won their first Bowling Finals title – and in fact the school’s first Finals title in any girls sport. It came on the heels of a trip to the semifinals last year.
“We were 39 pins ahead after the Baker and we were able to stay real close in the regular game,” Sabres coach Brent Wheat said.
Close, indeed. Traverse City Christian trailed Hanover-Horton for the regular games portion by four pins, 756-752 to win the title 1,077-1,042.
“It was real back-and-forth,” Wheat said. “We had all marks in the ninth frame and we were about even, so we knew they had all the pressure on them to try and come back. All we had to do was keep making spares and we would come out on top, and that’s what we did.”
The Sabres boys gave St. Charles all it wanted in the quarterfinals before the Bulldogs pulled to a 21-pin victory.
“We again had the Baker lead but we struggled,” Faupel said. “We had a 715 (score) and their anchorman needed a strike on the first ball of the 10th frame, and he leaves a Greek Church split (4-7-6-9-10), and it’s just so much exhilaration.”
Faupel, who created the team back in 2006, saw the Bulldogs end in the semifinals in 2016 and 2018. For him, the pain of losing those seasons was matched by the thrill of getting that second championship.
But, first, Faupel and his team had to overcome the disappointment among its five seniors, all of whom fell short in Regional singles last weekend.
“I told them that’s gone,” he said. “I said we had a chance to win the team title, and we took full advantage.”
As a result, Faupel’s time with the trophy was brief, lasting only as long as the ride home.
Wheat, for his part, was staying in a hotel preparing for Saturday’s individual tournament.
“The girls are probably sleeping with their medals,” he said. “I’m going to sleep with the trophy at least one night.”
The difference, he said, came in his team’s performance in Baker competition.
“We were able to get a 20-to-30-pin cushion in every game,” Wheat said. “Just a few pins, but that cushion really helped with nerves.”
After St. Charles celebrated its victory, Faupel gathered his bowlers.
“I said, ‘At some point in time, you’re going to feel the emotion of the day,’” he told them. “‘It might not be right now. It might be tomorrow, but you’re going to feel it.’”
As it turned out, the relief and joy of winning had eyes misting over from bowlers, coaches, and parents.
“It was a special moment,” Faupel said.
For the Sabres, there were tears as well after winning a title following the disappointment in the 2020 semifinals, when they lost in the 10th frame.
“The girls did it themselves, making sure that didn’t happen again,” Wheat said.
Click for bracket results: GIRLS | BOYS