They’re back, and perhaps even better than ever.

The Wayland girls’ varsity bowling team Saturday picked off its first tournament championship in its season opener, the Wyoming Invitational at Eastbrook Lanes in Grand Rapids.

Coach Bill Holbrook, who is expected to leave next month for a collegiate gig in Nebraska, said his Lady Wildcats got off to a very slow start in the individual games. only shooting 711 and 722. The six qualifying Baker games were not much better, as they wound up shooting 865.

“We finished with a qualifying score of 2298, which was good enough to qualify fourth,” Holbrook said.

In the first bracket match, Wayland took down the Lady Wildcats of Jenison, 348-233. The second round pitted the Wayland against Rockford.

“After the first Baker games, the Lady Wildcats were down by 16 pins, but they did not panic and fought back in game two to make up the difference and then some to beat Rockford 274-267.”

This placed the Lady Wildcats in the championship match versus Cedar Springs, which took a two-pin lead after game one but again Wayland came back with a strong finish in the second game to make up the deficit and win going away, 301-274.

“You could tell there was a lot of nerves coming into this tournament for the girls,” said the coach, noting Wayland is coming off a league co-championship and No. 5 rating in the state last season. “It took them until about half way through the Baker qualifying block for the team to get settled down and just bowl their game. Once they did, I knew they‘d be tough to beat head-to-head.

“This group of girls are tenacious in head-up matches and they know how to win. I’m so glad to get a win to start this season. It’s not going to be an easy season with me leaving in January but in my opinion, these girls can hang with anyone in the state.

“We have a ways to go before we are even close to our potential, but learning to win without your best is something great teams learn to do! I am so proud of this group of girls.”

The Wayland boys’ team did not qualify for the championship rounds and coach Sherry Miklusicak said, “The varsity boys found out that losing four seniors proved to be a struggle and are working hard to rebuild a young team. We are a young team and it will be a work in progress and aim to improve each week.

The Wildcat boys finished 15th out of 17 teams, and half of the teams were Division 1 schools.

PHOTO: The Lady Wildcats and coach Bill Holbrook show off their trophy they earned in the Wyoming Invitational (from left) junior Marissa Bruinsslot, senior Alicia Sweeney, junior Sydney Urben, senior Erin Porteous, coach Bill Holbrook, sophomore Mackenzie Banas and junior Jessica Henderson.

Junior Sydney Urben placed second on the all-tournament team for the Wyoming Invitational.