Roll Offs Decide D1 Championships
March 2, 2013
By Greg Chrapek
Special to Second Half
MUSKEGON – The MHSAA Division 1 Finals at Northway Lanes in Muskegon were not a place for the faint of heart Saturday.
In both the girls and the boys divisions, the eventual champions needed to win a roll off en route to winning a singles bowling title.
For Grand Ledge junior Barbara Lawson, her roll off came in the Semifinals against Nicole Mikaelian of Macomb Dakota. After battling to a 334-334 tie, Lawson was on her game in the roll off as she won 48-26 to make it into the championship match.
“That match was really scary,” Lawson said. “I was worried in that one.”
With that behind her, Lawson started her championship match in high gear and never let her foot off the pedal. She turned back senior Alyssa Meade of Macomb L’Anse Creuse North 419-323. Lawson won game one 200-121 as she rolled strikes in four of the first five frames and marked in all but one frame.
Lawson snuffed out any hope of a comeback by Meade in the second game as she opened with four straight strikes en route to a 219- 202 win.
“It feels awesome,” Lawson said. “I felt I got a little lucky, but I threw the ball well all day.”
“It helped getting the big lead in the first game,” she added. “It was kind of all bonus points after that.”
Lawson just missed making the Finals match play last season as she finished 17th in qualifying, one spot short. This time, she finished 12th in the opening block.
Meade, who finished third in qualifying, reached the finals by turning back Heather Baur of Davison 349-312. A senior who has made three trips to the Finals, Meade was proud of reaching the last match of the day and capping off a memorable high school bowling career.
“I’ve been to states three years and this was the first time I qualified for the finals,” Meade said. “It was my goal the last four years to make it to the finals, and this means a lot to me. This has been a great experience for me. High school bowling has made me a new person. I have so many memories and it was such a great experience. I fell a little short today, but this is what I worked for and no matter what I am proud of myself.”
If Jeff Pietryka of Clinton Township Chippewa Valley High School didn’t have a nickname coming into the Division 1 Boys Final, he certainly could’ve left with one.
Cardiac Kid would be one appropriate moniker for Pietryka, who lived on the edge Saturday, but came away with the championship.
Pietryka gave the packed house at Northway Lanes plenty of chills and thrills as he wound his way to a victory in a roll off against Alex Zarbaugh of Belleville.
“It was my goal to win it before the season,” Pietryka said. “It was definitely a tight match at the end, but a couple of breaks went my way.”
Pietryka’s title match with Zarbaugh was a see-saw struggle with both bowlers getting on hot streaks, but neither able to pull away. Pietryka won the first game 180-166, marking in all but one frame and totaling seven spares.
Adding to the tension of the match was the fact that Pietryka was battling a physical problem and needed to have his arm massaged between frames.
“It was the first time it popped up,” Pietryka said. “I was able to work through it after a while. It was a kink in a tendon in my arm that would cause a couple of my fingers to cramp up.”
Pietryka started the second game strong, but was unable to shake the determined Zarbaugh, who would not let him expand on his lead. Zarbaugh posted a strike in the fourth frame, and after a spare in the fifth, rolled three consecutive strikes to take a 21-point lead in the eighth frame and a seven-pin overall lead.
Pietryka, however, continued to battle away and posted strikes of his own in the sixth, seventh, ninth and 10th frames.
Pietryka still held the overall lead going into the 10th frame, but the door was open for Zarbaugh to tie the match. With a spare in the 10th, Zarbaugh needed a strike to tie, and he delivered to the roar of the crowd.
The match then went to a two-frame roll off. Pietryka rolled a strike in his first frame, and Zarbaugh countered with a spare. Zarbaugh then opened the next frame with a strike but left one pin standing on his next roll, finishing the frame with a spare and a score of 40.
Pietryka answered with a strike on his next ball and then fell nine pins and finished with a strike for a 49 to win the roll off and the title.
“It was a back and forth match the whole way,” Pietryka said. “We were probably never more than 20 pins apart.”
The title match was just the capper on a thrilling day for Pietryka, who virtually walked a tight rope to the championship match. Pietryka made the match play with little room to spare, as he finished 13th in qualifying with a 1,225 total, nine pins above 17th place and falling short.
Pietryka won his round of 16 and quarterfinal matches with room to spare, but his semifinal match with Brad Wozniak, the No.-1 seed from Traverse City West, was as close as it gets. Pietryka edged Wozniak 377-373 but needed to throw strikes on both of his first two balls in the 10th frame.
“I always love to bowl under pressure,” Pietryka said. “I bowl in the anchor spot for my team and I love having the pressure on me.”
For Zarbaugh, coming up just short was a disappointment, but it could not dampen what had been a tremendous tournament run.
“You can’t end it any better then in a roll off,” Zarbaugh said. “He won it fair and square. I came into this tournament hoping to qualify for the finals, and I made it all the way to the championship match. I exceeded all my goals, and next year I want to come back and do it even better.”
A junior, Zarbaugh finished third in qualifying with a 1,261 total. Zarbaugh reached the finals by turning back Derek Nyenhuis of Wyoming 394-373 in the semifinals.
Click for full girls results and boys results.
Girls Top 8, from left-to-right: Alyssa Meade, Macomb L'Anser Creuse North; Heather Baur, Davison; Madalyn Klein, Walled Lake Western; Shamonica Simon, Flint Carman-Ainsworth; Alicia Babicz, Lake Orion; Nicole Mikaelian, Macomb Dakota and Barbara Lawson, Grand Ledge.
Boys Top 8, from left-to-right: Jack Herndell, Howell; Jacob Kersten, Clarkston; Zach Schneider, Grandville; George Wade, Jackson; Brad Wozniak, Traverse City Central; Derek Nyenhuis, Wyoming; Alex Zarbaugh, Belleville; and Jeff Piertryka, Clinton Twp Chippewa Valley.
Rogers City Teams Eager to Begin, Aiming to Add to Bowling Tradition
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
December 15, 2023
Rogers City’s bowling team is on a roll. And the Hurons haven’t even had their first competition of the season.
Rogers City has a decorated past, including winning the first state bowling championship in 1999, organized by the Bowling Center Association of Michigan, against a field including schools of all sizes and five years before the addition of MHSAA Finals in the sport. The boys team also was the Division 4 team runner-up at the first Class C-D Finals hosted by the MHSAA in 2004.
The Hurons hope to return to those glory days by bringing back experienced bowlers on both the boys and girls teams. Rogers City last qualified teams for the Finals in 2020 – when both the boys and girls advanced – and both teams hope to make a run at the Northern Michigan Conference title and land a spot at this season’s Finals in March.
The boys did find success last year — with just four bowlers — placing ahead of a handful of teams at its Regional. This year, Rogers City has a full boys team, and more, including junior Gavin Rhode, who qualified for the Singles Finals last year. The Hurons also are returning senior Conner Muller and sophomore Gabe Mina; Muller narrowly missed qualifying for the Finals last winter. And they are excited to see how first-year bowlers Blaise Szatkowski, Cooper Heinzel, George Karsten, Jacob Wickersham and Ryan Morgan perform.
The girls are returning seniors Arianna Anderson and Sophia Mina and sophomore Olivia Reyes. First-year bowlers Ruby Svay – an exchange student – and freshman Brooke Crawford compose the rest of the squad.
Both the boys and the girls have added strong bowlers with incoming freshmen, including Wickersham, a 180-average bowler.
“With a small school you kind of know what is coming along,” long-time coach Brian Bannasch said. “Even with our limited numbers last year, we were still competitive.”
The Hurons will open their season Jan. 6. As has been the case for years, matches will take place on Saturdays for optimal lane availability.
“After the success previous to COVID, the last couple years have really been a letdown just not having enough bodies,” Bannasch acknowledged. “We still sent kids to the state finals individually, but team-wise were just lacking numbers with a small school that has under 175 in the high school.
“When you lose any number of kids, it is tough to replace them,” he continued. “We are really excited to have numbers this year.”
The bowling program has been battling lower overall school enrollment and competing with basketball and wrestling teams for roster numbers.
Long hours in the alley for practice, traveling for matches and competing are paying off for the Hurons. Those long hours are the same for the coaches, forcing absence from the family business.
But it’s being done with a focus on a road trip to the Division 4 Finals in March, at Northway Lanes in Muskegon.
The boys and girls Regionals, hosted by Traverse City Christian, will be held at Lucky Jacks in Traverse City.
“We definitely have individuals expecting to qualify as individuals on the boys side,” Bannasch said. “We have three girls that have bowled before and fewer teams in each Regional.
“We had a pretty powerful Regional,” he continued. “Maybe with fewer teams, it could work to our advantage.”
Bannasch, whose family owns the local bowling alley Nautical Lanes, has been the boys and girls bowling coach from the beginning at Rogers City. The school started with a club team prior to making it a varsity sport.
Bannasch has seen a lot of talented bowlers develop through his youth programs and then vie for championships in high school. The Hurons often have had more than a dozen bowlers on the boys team.
Bannasch points to every bowler in Rogers City history competing in at least one varsity match every year as key to the team’s historical success. His unique philosophy of participation often has paid dividends.
“One of the things that has helped us be successful is that I have a little different philosophy than most coaches,” Bannasch noted. “We’ve had years where we’ve had 12 or 14 boys and 10 girls.
“We had JV matches, but we never consider it JV – they were all part of the varsity bowling team,” he continued. “In the next year, they have experienced that and know what the varsity match is all about.”
Bannasch also has watched other conference schools win or contend for Finals titles, something he points to with pride.
Bannasch spotlighted Cheboygan’s boys having won the Division 2 title in 2009 and Boyne City’s boys — as a newer program — finishing Division 3 runners-up in 2020 and 2021. Cheboygan’s girls finished Division 3 runners-up in 2022.
“Our success has been great, but I take just as much pride in the success of our conference,” Bannasch said. “We’re such a close-knit conference, it is great to see anybody up here be successful at it.”
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Rogers City’s bowling teams have high aspirations this winter with their first competitions coming up next month. (Middle) Gavin Rhode, a Finals qualifier last season, practices recently. (Below) Arianna Anderson, left, and Sophia Mina are seniors on the girls team. (Photos by Richard Lamb/Presque Isle Newspapers.)