Kearsley Girls Return to Top, Divine Child Boys Earn 1st Title
By
Jason Schmitt
Special for MHSAA.com
March 26, 2021
WATERFORD – The journey began a long time ago for the Flint Kearsley girls bowling team.
Nearly 10 years for some of the team’s seniors.
It didn’t begin when they entered high school four years ago. It began with a bus ride from Dowdall Elementary School to Richfield Bowl back in the second grade.
“I definitely started bowling for Kearsley when I was at Dowdall, in second grade,” senior Allison Robbins said. “It was fun. And now it’s my last year (at Kearsley) and it’s going to be hard to leave.”
Richfield offers an after-school bowling program for the Dowdall students. It busses the kids over to the bowling alley and offers the future Hornets a chance to get a head start on the competition. And it definitely has paid off.
Kearsley topped the competition at the Division 2 Finals on Friday at Century Lanes in Waterford, defeating reigning champion Mason, 1,186-1,166, in the title-clinching match. It was the school’s eighth Finals championship since 2012.
“We have the after-school program and a middle school program,” first-year head coach Kevin Shute said. “It really gets the ball rolling. By the time they’re freshmen, they’ve got years of bowling under their belt. They already know what they’re doing. It’s just a matter of going out and executing.”
Shute’s team executed from start to finish Friday afternoon. The Hornets were the top-seeded team out of block qualifying, shooting a 3,440, nearly 300 pins better than second-seeded Mason. They defeated Bay City Western in the round of eight before knocking off St. Clair Shores Lake Shore in the semifinals, 1,321-1,065.
Kearsley led Mason by 55 pins after the two Baker games and rolled a clean first frame (five strikes) to get off to a good start in the regular games. Seniors Megan Timm and Emilea Sturk rolled games of 190 and 188 to help their team hold on for the victory.
“It feels really good, especially beating the team that knocked us out last year,” Robbins said, wiping away tears after winning her third Finals team title in four years. “It’s great to be able to get that redemption and show that we are better bowlers than we were that day.”
Despite trailing after the Baker games, Mason did not give up. The Bulldogs collected marks in their first eight frames of the individual game and were within striking range entering the 10th frame. The 2020 champions were led by senior Grace Ann Whipple, who shot a 237 to lead all bowlers in the championship match.
Mason shot a 3,160 in qualifying and defeated Melvindale and Whitehall en route to the final.
Kearsley will graduate five seniors, all of whom will be bowling in college. Allison Eible will be bowling at Valparaiso University, Rhyan Langdon-Yaklin at Cleary University, Robbins at Tusculum University, Sturk at Florida A&M University and Timm at Trine University.
On the boys side, Dearborn Divine Child rallied past Chelsea to claim its first-ever MHSAA Finals championship. Entering match play as the 3-seed, the Falcons defeated sixth-seeded Grand Rapids Kenowa Hills by 28 pins in the round of eight, then edged out second-seeded Tecumseh by just three pins, 1,385-1,382, in the semifinals.
At that point coach Nick Ploucha’s team was staring at a matchup against fourth-seeded Chelsea, which was fresh off an upset win over top-seeded and reigning champion Jackson Northwest.
The Bulldogs rolled Baker games of 220 and 190 to take a 74-pin lead over Divine Child into the regular games.
“There are a lot of teams that scream and yell, hoot and holler, and we just kind of wait our turn,” Ploucha said. “We knew we were 74 pins down but we were patient and we began chipping away at the lead. The kids were dynamite. You could feel them start to move the locomotive, a little bit every frame, and they finished it.”
Sophomore Andrew Carl bowled a 231 to lead the comeback, while junior Paul Scheuher and senior Noelle Jackson rolled games of 226 and 210 as the Falcons shot a team score of 1,022. Seniors Adam Thompson and Shane Green shot 181 and 174 in their team’s win.
Divine Child shot 3,545 in qualifying play, while Chelsea shot 3,442.
Just six years ago, Ploucha inherited a team that was returning zero bowlers.
“We’ve told the kids over the years to continue to be patient,” Ploucha said. “Last year, we wanted to just make it to the state Finals. We tried to have a good time this year, we wanted to qualify (for match play). Once we qualified, we just said, ‘Let’s see where this takes us.’ ”
D3 Belongs to History-Making Pennfield
March 4, 2017
By Chip Mundy
Special for Second Half
BATTLE CREEK – James Ruoff and Haley Hooper starred in plenty of roles Saturday afternoon during the Division 3 singles bowling championships at M-66 Bowl.
They were comeback kids, winning MHSAA titles after Ruoff qualified as the No. 15 seed and Hooper made it as the No. 16 seed.
They were giant-killers. Hooper began her championship run by knocking off top-seeded Kendra Grandy of Birch Run – on Grandy's 18th birthday – while Ruoff knocked off No. 2 seed Adrian Hall of Corunna in the first round of match play.
And they were record-setters. Ruoff and Hooper, both sophomores at Battle Creek Pennfield, became the first boys and girls singles bowling champions from the same school in the same year in any division. And they did it on their home lanes.
It was quite a weekend for Pennfield, as the boys won the team title Friday and Ruoff and Hooper stole the show Saturday. Airport Lanes in Jackson has hosted Division 3 recently but had to give it up this year because the USBC men's state tournament is being held there, so M-66 Bowl stepped in.
“It's special for us, and it's great for M-66,” Pennfield coach Mike Roach said. “We had more people here, and they stayed longer to support the team if their son or daughter was done bowling, so that's great, and M-66 did a great job this weekend.”
So did the Pennfield bowling teams.
Ruoff won his title first Saturday afternoon, throwing the focus on Hooper, who was bowling at the opposite end of M-66 Bowl. Hooper had won her first game against Grand Rapids South Christian senior Hannah Bergstrom 187-159, and she closed it out with a 212 finish for a 399-325 victory.
“It was tough, but it's unforgettable,” Hooper said. “I was discouraged coming in. I normally don't bowl better on my home lanes, and I had a rough day Friday in team, and then I started off rough in singles.”
She started the six-game qualifying session with a 149, and she averaged 177 over her next five games to slip into the 16-player match-play field by three pins with a 1,034 total. As the games piled up, Hooper's wrist began to ache, so she found a distraction.
“I was singing a song to distract myself from thinking about my wrist hurting,” she said. “It was Beyonce, and the song was ‘Halo.’”
It worked. Hooper went into match play and knocked off the top-seeded Grandy 334-321. In the semis, Grand Rapids South Christian senior Tori Gaskell won the first game by 13 pins, but Hooper rallied with a 205 to advance with a 383-361 victory.
“That took a lot,” she said. “But being behind after the first game really gave me that extra motivation.”
Hooper had a lead throughout the championship match. After winning the first game 187-159, she fired a 212 for her 74-pin victory to complete the Pennfield sweep.
“I've seen it year after year where No. 1 seeds rarely win,” Roach said. “You've already put all your effort in, and once you get in, it's all a level field.
“It's who is going to make that quality shot and pick up that spare. And it's what are you going to do after you miss a spare, because everybody misses a spare, and Haley strikes nine out of 10 times after she misses a spare.”
Ruoff, who bowled anchor for Pennfield as it won the team title Friday, had a similar challenge. He averaged 180 for his first two games in qualifying before running off games of 195, 201, 213 and 179 for a 1,148 total – just 11 pins ahead of the bowler who finished in the 17th spot.
“I knew I needed to make a big push,” Ruoff said. “My Game 5 was good, and Game 6 I got on a pair that I couldn't carry, and I ended up going to that for one of my matches and ended up doing pretty well on it.”
In the first round of match play, Ruoff shot 245 in his first game and overwhelmed second-seeded Hall 416-313.
“I knew I was going to go against the two seed, but I went in last year as the third seed and got kicked out in the first round, so I knew I needed to do the same thing,” Ruoff said.
The tables turned on Ruoff in the Quarterfinals as Chad Birchmeier of Birch Run shot 244 in the first game to take a 41-pin lead. Ruoff answered with 237 in the second game to advance with a 440-396 victory.
“I just beared down and got some strikes going,” he said.
Ruoff defeated Caro sophomore Adam Jackson 380-350 in the semis, while top-seeded Gage Nickelson of Wyoming Kelloggsville was getting eliminated. Nickelson's qualifying run was amazing with games of 277, 207, 230, 231, 225 and 237. He topped 220 in each of his first three games in match play before games of 185, 190 and 135. Jonah Montney of Shepherd ousted Nickelson 409-325 to earn a spot in the Final against Ruoff.
Montney opened with four consecutive strikes to grab the lead, but Ruoff answered with four in a row late in the game to win the opener 216-199. Ruoff's 179 in the second game was enough to close out the championship with a 395-349 victory.
“I knew I could do it, but it was a matter of doing it,” he said. “The biggest thing I had to do was stay down in my shot. As long as I stayed down, it was flush every time. I had to fight popping up.”
Ruoff knows the house and lanes well.
“The thing with this place is each lane plays so different,” he said, “and that 's what makes this place so hard to score in. Sometimes the lanes are just like I remember bowling high school matches on here, and then another time it plays completely different.”
Ruoff's performance was not an unexpected one for his coaches.
“We were in here watching James, and we said, 'This guy is on a mission to win states this year.' He just worked hard and got it done,” Roach said.
The large Pennfield crowd had plenty to cheer about in what turned out to be an historic day for MHSAA bowling.
“I'm on top of Jupiter. I feel fantastic,” Roach said.
Click for full girls results and full boys results.
PHOTO: Battle Creek Pennfield’s Haley Hooper and James Ruoff stand together after sweeping this season’s Division 3 singles championships.