Fremont Boys, Cros-Lex Girls Claim D3
February 28, 2014
By Chip Mundy
Special to Second Half
JACKSON – Fremont junior Sam Brandt fell a little short of perfection Friday afternoon in the championship match of the MHSAA Division 3 Boys Bowling Final at Airport Lanes in Jackson.
However, Brandt did not come up short in terms of a championship.
Brandt opened the final game with the first seven strikes before a 7-pin stopped him in the eighth frame. He went on to a 268 game to lead Fremont past Pinconning 1,296-1,203 for Fremont’s second MHSAA title in three years.
“It felt great – although the smash seven wasn’t a great feeling, but it happens,” Brandt said. “I got a little light with the ball.”
Brandt, a right-hander who was using a Storm IQ Tour Fusion ball he had just bought Thursday, is the younger brother of Zach Brandt, who was the Division 3 individual runner-up for Fremont in 2010 and the MHSAA champion in 2011.
“I feel the pressure having to win state because I’ve been bowling with him and all of his friends all my life, basically,” Sam Brandt said.
Fremont nearly did not get out of the qualifying round. The Packers were 11th entering the final game of qualifying and used a 913 team game to climb to eighth and grab the final spot in the Quarterfinals by just five pins over Ishpeming.
“At first, we were half and half on whether we were going to make it or not, but once we found out we made it, we knew we had to finish,” said Fremont senior Jeremy Pikaard, who bowled in the MHSAA Final two years ago for Fremont with Brandt and Mike Margol.
Seeded eighth, Fremont knocked off No. 1 seed Jackson Lumen Christi 1,252-1,200 in the Quarterfinal and No. 5 seed Grand Rapids South Christian 1,312-1,259 in the Semifinal.
Fremont stumbled early in the first Baker game against Pinconning with three open frames to start. But the Pioneers followed with six strikes in a row for a 225 and went on to a 93-pin victory.
“All year long we’ve been a very resilient team,” second-year Fremont coach Tom Elmer said. “We kind of start slow sometimes, but we battle and battle and battle. We have a strong group of kids.”
In the final game when all five individuals bowl an entire game, Brandt led the way with a 268 while Pikaard added a 231 and Margol had a 203. All three will be joined by teammate Sean Vincent in the Individual Final today, also at Airport Lanes in Jackson. Brandt lost in the Semifinals a year ago.
Meanwhile, the Croswell-Lexington girls had to get past their nemesis, Richmond, in the Semifinal, to get to the championship match. The Pioneers knocked off top-seeded Richmond 1,312-1,256 and then rolled over Ishpeming 1,190-1,082 in the championship match.
As far as the Pioneers were concerned, beating Richmond was almost as thrilling as winning the championship. Richmond and Croswell-Lexington both compete in the Blue Water Area Conference, and Richmond finished first and the Pioneers third in the same Regional last week.
“It was amazing that we beat them,” senior Victoria Bender said. “It’s one of the first times we’ve ever beat them, and we’ve never beat them by that margin.”
Senior Megan Geiser had similar feelings.
“I felt more pressure against Richmond than anything because they’re like our family,” she said. “But when it came to being against them – we don’t normally beat them like that – we came in feeling good and pulled it off and got first.”
The match against Ishpeming was almost anti-climatic. The Pioneers won both Baker games (171-163 and 163-137) and then used great consistency in the team game as all five girls rolled between 166 and 179. Bender led the way with a 179, while Charity Mosher had a 174, Geiser 170, Katie LaPorte 167 and Kelsey Lodge 166.
“We were very nervous going into it, but the girls came to bowl,” Croswell-Lexington coach Anita Mifsud said. “They did a good job.
“There was nice consistency all the way through, and they all stepped up to the plate this year. It was wonderful.”
The Pioneers qualified fourth and beat Wyoming Kelloggsville 1,221-1,149 in the Quarterfinal to set up the match with Richmond, which had a 3,473 qualifying total – 362 pins ahead of No. 2 seed Battle Creek Pennfield, the defending MHSAA champion.
Bender, Geiser, Mosher and LaPorte all will compete today in the Individual Finals. Bender, Geiser and Mosher all are seniors, while LaPorte is a junior.
“It’s pretty amazing that we actually did it,” Bender said. “It took a lot to get here and to overcome the nerves that we had early in the day.”
Click for full boys results and full girls results.
PHOTOS: The Fremont boys bowling team and Croswell-Lexington girls bowling teams pose with their MHSAA championship trophies. (Photos by Chip Mundy.)
Knop Finishes Frankenmuth Boys' Weekend Sweep with Singles Win
By
Jeff Bleiler
Special for MHSAA.com
March 2, 2024
JACKSON — Three frames into the game, Mayson Knop was in a pickle.
The Frankenmuth High School senior had already opened the frame prior and was staring at a monstrosity of a split — the 3-4-6-7-9-10 — and the prospect of digging an early hole against a bowler who had just shot a two-game series of 499.
Knop lined up, sent his ball toward the pins and slapped all six down. He then struck on eight of the next nine shots for a 237 game and a 62-pin lead that he rode to the Division 3 Singles Finals championship Saturday at Jax 60.
“I thought (the split conversion) was pretty big,” Knop said. “I didn’t know how the rest of the game was going to play out, but I knew that every pin counted.”
Knop needed just about every pin as Gladstone junior Matt Meyer clawed back after his opening 175 game but could ultimately not come up with the strikes he needed as Knop finished the second with 157 for a two-game total of 394 to Meyer’s 364.
Knop threw a strike in the 10th frame of the second game to seal it, and the emotions that had been building over two days that saw Frankenmuth sweep the team and individual trophies spilled over.
“I can’t even describe it,” Knop said. “Yesterday we went out and won team states, and it took a team effort. I’ve never in my entire life of bowling been more focused in a game (than the individual Final). It’s an incredible feeling, there’s no word to describe it.”
Coach Ron Krueger came up with a word: composure. Krueger said Knop joined the team as a sophomore and was a “raw” two-hander, but he soon inserted Knop into the anchor position and the experience he gained there showed up this weekend.
“The young man has worked incredibly hard; he bowls four days a week,” Krueger said. “He kept his composure. It’s a senior thing. When you get out here, there’s so much pressure and he kept his composure.”
Knop qualified 10th for match play after six qualifying games, starting with 224 and 247 and finishing with a total of 1,205. Teammate Miles Paetz was the top seed at 1,325, and Liam Liddle made it 3-for-3 Eagles in the top 16 by qualifying fifth with 1,241.
Knop defeated Lake Odessa Lakewood senior Phillip Butler in the first round 397-327, then advanced to the Semifinals with a 404-328 win over Croswell-Lexington freshman Joshua Gunderson.
He reached the Finals after overcoming an early deficit and defeating Milan sophomore Kendel Carpenter 411-385. After getting up early against Meyer, Knop found the going rougher in the second game of the Final, opening in three of the first seven frames before finishing strike-spare-strike-spare to secure the victory.
Meyer was the ninth seed after shooting 1,215 for the six games of qualifying. A one-handed bowler with massive revolutions on his resin ball — a stark contrast to the many two-handed bowlers throwing urethane — Meyer flawlessly advanced through the bracket with a 400-306 victory over Allegan junior Anderson Zoch, a 414-363 win over Paetz and a monstrous 499-309 victory over Midland Bullock Creek senior Anthony Davis.
Meyer shot games of 265 and 234 against Davis, by far the highest two-game set of match play. Davis’ 446 in the Quarterfinal over Grand Rapids Catholic Central junior Dom Danneffel’s 433 was second-highest in bracket play.
Knop said he tried picturing himself open bowling alone at Stardust Entertainment Center in Saginaw to calm himself, and the trick worked. He plans to bowl collegiately at Concordia University. Absent that, he said he’ll bowl PBA regional events with the ultimate goal of bowling on the PBA Tour.
For now, he plans to relish what was a dream weekend on the lanes.
“It’s been amazing. I love my team,” he said. “They’re amazing bowlers and amazing teammates. It’s a perfect way to end my last season of bowling.”