Trophy Pose Turns Into Trophy Win
March 6, 2013
By Jeff Steers
Brooklyn Exponent editor
(Submitted to Second Half)
Vandercook Lake High School girls bowling coach Todd Reichard likes each of his athletes to complete her toss with a hand up in the air like a bowling trophy.
Those who don’t complete their throws with a trophy pose are assigned to a two-minute penalty in the position.
Junior Malloree Ambs is the worst offender of this rule.
But last weekend she walked out of the Michigan High School Athletic Association Division 4 Bowling Finals at Sunnybrook Lanes in Sterling Heights with a trophy, two medals and an individual championship.
Reichard still held up two fingers during the Finals each time Ambs failed to assume the bowling trophy position.
Ambs finished first in the individual tournament with a win over Paige Huebel of Oscoda High School. She finished with a total of 375 pins over two games to defeat Huebel by 14 pins.
Ambs is the first Vandercook Lake bowler to win a title since Nicole Crabtree won in 2009.
She rebounded from a rocky qualifying round where she made the top 16 field by only 14 pins.
“I had a rough time of it during the qualifying round,” Ambs said. “I knew I had to come back and battle.”
Ambs, Jessica Bunch and Becky Cecil all advanced to the round of 16. Cecil – who qualified 16th – knocked off the number one seed in round one and Bunch earned an easy win in her first round.
Huebel defeated Cecil in round two (423-377 for two games], Bunch tied with Kaitlin Gunsell of Unionville-Sebewaing but lost in a roll-off, and Ambs defeated Melissa Sleda of Sandusky (409-343).
One more pin by Bunch in regulation would have meant that she would have faced Ambs in the semifinal.
“I was somewhat relieved because I hate bowling against my teammates,” Ambs said.
Ambs defeated Gunsell 399 to 331 in the semifinals to advance to the finals.
She trailed by 11 pins after game one of the finals as a split in the sixth frame slowed her pace. Huebel experienced a split in game two in the fifth frame to open the door for Ambs.
Ambs appeared to have the match wrapped up after that, but an open in the 10th frame opened the door for Huebel. When the Oscoda bowler did not strike in the 10th frame, the victory went to Ambs.
She is the third VCL bowler to win an individual title, joining Crabtree in 2009 and Dee Dee Briggs in 2005.
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PHOTO: Vandercook Lake junior Malloree Ambs won the Division 4 individual title Saturday at Sunnybrook Lanes. (Photo courtesy of the Brooklyn Exponent.)
1st-Time Finalists Become 1st-Time Champs in D4
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
March 27, 2021
CANTON – Both Burr Oak junior Ethan Lindsay and Gobles sophomore Morgan Brunner obviously hope they qualify for the Division 4 Bowling Finals again during their high school careers.
But if they do, it is certainly going to be hard to top their respective first appearances.
Both not only competed in their first Finals, but they left Super Bowl in Canton with the titles as individual singles champions for 2021.
Lindsay earned his title by beating Stephen Kangas of Ishpeming Westwood in the final, 509-422.
Lindsay all but clinched his championship by bowling a 280 in the first game, a total he wasn’t sure afterwards was a season high or not.
Kangas bowled a 230, but still found himself down 50 pins.
“It was extremely nerve-wracking,” Lindsay said. ‘I would sing songs in my head to distract me from bowling. Anything to take my mind off my opponent and what he was bowling and what I was bowling.”
It was certainly hard for anyone who watched Lindsay’s brilliant day to want to look away from his bowling.
Seeded ninth out of the qualifying block, Lindsay earned a 432-347 win over Aiden Briguglio of Kimball Landmark Academy in the round of 16 before beating Jesse Pancio of Baldwin in a quarterfinal by just two pins, 380-378.
Lindsay then beat Riley Vernon of Ithaca in a semifinal, 355-337, before saving his best pair of games for the final.
At the end, Lindsay was simply thinking about his hometown and the fact he brought a championship back to it.
“It means a lot, especially for my town,” Lindsay said. “We’re a small town in Burr Oak. We’ve got like 300 kids in our school. It’s great to bring back this big trophy to my small town.”
Also bringing back a title to her small town was Brunner, who defeated Ella Wendel of Traverse City Christian in a close championship match.
Brunner prevailed 362-354, knowing she had the title when Wendel wasn’t able to bowl a strike on her first ball of the 10th frame in the second game.
“I was excited,” Brunner said of her mindset coming into her first state tournament. “I’ve been bowling pretty good recently. I just tried to stay positive.”
Brunner was the No. 3 seed out of the qualifying block, and started off by beating Chloe Crick of Maple City Glen Lake in the round of 16, 396-317.
Brunner then beat Arielle Oakley of Vandercook Lake in the quarterfinals, 404-292, and 2020 champ Kassidy Alexander of Hanover-Horton in the semifinals, 376-327, to set up the championship match with Wendel, who was the No. 1 seed out of the qualifying block.
“I was telling myself to stay calm and make good shots,” Brunner said. “It feels good.”
In addition to winning the titles in their first Finals appearances, Lindsay and Brunner did it in what was their only day at Super Bowl of the two-day event.
Their respective teams didn’t qualify for the Friday Team Finals, but it obviously didn’t take Lindsay or Brunner long to get used to the lanes and environment.
Click for full singles scores.