The Wayland girls’ varsity bowling team finished second in back-to-back tournaments Friday and Saturday.

The Lady Wildcats were runners-up Friday in the Portage Northern Huskie Invitational and landed in the same place Saturday in the Cedar Springs Invitational.

It was the coaching swan song for Bill Holbrook, who had to leave to coach his collegiate team in Nebraska, a job he took pnly recently, but agreed to coach the Lady Wildcats until the holiday break.

The Wayland girls qualified in first place at Cedar Springs and were hundreds of pins above the second place qualifier. Even more amazing is that they had 11 strikes in a row and would have had a 299 game except it was split over two games. However, all scores are wiped out in the stepladder finals and  the Lady Wildcats ended up a respectable second after taking the first place trophy last year.

“As the boys coach, I could overhear other teams even down on the boys’ end of the tournament talking about the Wayland girls with amazement!” said coach Sherry Miklusicak.

It was the third straight year Wayland has competed at Portage Northern and the second straight year coach Bill Holbrook’s girls have finished second.

“Each year the event grows in size and talent of the field,” Holbrook noted. “After a second place finish last year to state powerhouse Sturgis last year, the ladies were looking for redemption and to reclaim their tournament title from two years ago.”

Holbrook said the conditions were difficult and scoring is always low at this tournament, which puts a premium on spare shooting. Unfortunately for the Lady Wildcats, their spare shooting was lacking and they had higher than normal splits and fewer strikes, so they started very slowly. They were only able to muster six out of 15 individual games over 150.

The six-game Baker block didn’t prove much better but they were more consistent and avoided any disastrous games with a six game tally of 871 giving them a qualifying score of 2993. As a testament to the tough conditions, the Lady Wildcats still qualified fourth.

Leading the way for the Wayland was junior Sydney Urben who placed third on the all-tournament team with a three-game total of 549 and senior Alicia Sweeney, who got off to a slow start her first individual game, but improved quickly and helped anchor her team in the Baker games.

The first round of bracket play would be a rematch of last year’s title match pitting the Lady Wildcats against Division 2 state and regional rival Sturgis. In last year’s championship, the Lady Wildcats lost in three straight. This year’€™s match started with a close loss in game one (130 to 122). However, they were determined not to lose to Sturgis for a second straight year and won game two (152-139), game three (153-145) and the match to earn their place in round two.

Round 2 matched the Lady Wildcats against another historically strong program in Alma, the defending Division 3 State Champs. The Wayland Union ladies started with a very strong effort in this match defeating Alma in game one (186-175). Unfortunately, the momentum shifted quickly as splits and poor spare shooting were the order for game two which they lost decisively (161 to 118). However, the Lady Wildcats were not done yet and pulled together as a team to take game three going away and send the defending state champs home (156-120) and earn their third consecutive championship match berth at the Portage Northern tourney.

This year’s championship match opponent was Adrian. The Lady Wildcats came out with a nice win in game one (157-145). Unfortunately, the ladies would not take another game losing the next three (150 to 138; 171 to 150; 159-154) to finish second.

“Although the ladies were disappointed by their second place finish (they are disappointed with everything short of wins and first place finishes), they are proving that they are tough competitors and a challenge to take down regardless of the conditions. They had their opportunities to take home the title but just could not catch the needed break when it mattered and Adrian did. You have to tip your hat to Adrian; they converted on their opportunities and took full advantage of the good breaks they got.”

Along with Sydney Urben and Alicia Sweeney, junior Marissa Bruinsslot, junior Jessica Henderson and senior Erin Porteous all overcame slow starts and struggles to perform extremely well when it counted most, bracket play Baker games.

“I cannot stress enough how hard these girls work, how close they are, and how they pick one another up when one falters,” Holbrook said. “They are no longer a group of individuals but a team with a single goal in mind… to win everything they bowl in. That kind of attitude is intimidating and tough to beat.”

Miklusicak said, “Please give coach Bill Holbrook a few days to catch up with his reporting, as he is off to coach his college team this week. So bittersweet, as this was his last time coaching his parents’ alma mater.”

Holbrook’s parents, Bill Holbrook and the former Sandy Kotrba, are 1964 graduates of Wayland High School.