The Wayland girls’ varsity bowli
ng team Friday just missed a trip to the state finals, but one Lady Wildcat, freshman Sydney Urben, qualified for the competition next weekend.
Wayland finished fourth at the regional tournament. The top three schools advance to state competition. The Lady Wildcats missed qualifying by only 135 pins.
Coach Bill Holbrook said, “They were very consistent throughout the day of bowling that included six Baker games and three regular games and had a final score of 3105. The most exciting part of the day to me was when I asked the top two school’s coaches about their team and they told me their rosters where predominantly seniors and some juniors.
“Our roster for the day was two juniors, two sophomores and three freshmen. Of the seven, three had never bowled competitively before this season.”
Leading the way for the Wayland team was sophomore Alicia Sweeney (188-157-182=527), Urben (193-156-166=515) and sophomore Erin Porteous (167-168=335).
Urben on Saturday finished an amazing second at the Division 2, Region 8 individual bowling tournament and earned a spot in the Division 2 State Finals individual bowling tournament with a score of 1139. She started the day with 170-167-174=521 and was hovering just outside the top ten, which qualify for the state finals. She finished strong with 206-196-226=628 to climb all the way up to second place.
“She has worked very hard recently to make some needed changes to her game to compete on more difficult oil patterns and that paid off for her today,” Holbrook said. “She will be in the final field of 60 rolling for a chance at a state singles title for Division 2 next Saturday (March 7).
Wayland junior Lizzy Cobb continued her improvement and torrid finish to her season by finishing just outside the top 10 (by 29 pins) in 13th with 190-169-139-165-161-150=974, averaging 162 for the day.
That is impressive,” Holbrook commented,” but it’s even more impressive considering that is 20 pins higher than her final average for the season and closer to 40 pins higher than where she was at a little over a month ago. That is an impressive finish to her season and should give her some great confidence heading into her senior season!”
Sweeney finished off a great season with an 18th place finish with a series of 201-140-172-141-156-134=944.
Two freshmen who were new to bowling this season had solid showings in their first regional tournament. Jessica Henderson was consistent most of the day with 48th place finish with 134-147-147-133-86-138=785. She averaged 130 for the day, more than 15 pins better than her season average. Marissa Bruinsslot got of to a rough start, but fought through it to have a strong finish in 37th place with 108-86-169-167-137-164=831. Junior Aubree Hodges battled through some shoulder issues and had an up and down day, finishing in 52nd with 157-123-109-125-151-112=777.
“I am so incredibly proud of how these young ladies bowled these past two days,” their coach said. “It was a lot of bowling and they fought, clawed and scratched to get all they could from their efforts this weekend. They never quit. They never shut down. They never stopped battling. This experience is going to make them a scary force to be reckoned with next season, and considering how young this team is, a season or two after that as well!”
Wayland High School Junior Cam Heintzleman also qualified for next weekend’s state tournament by finishing eighth Saturday in the boys’ regionals.
PHOTOS: Freshman Sydney Urben (back, second from left) and these other nine girls’ bowling standouts will join the state competition next weekend.
Freshman Sydney Urben celebrates her state-qualifying regional performance with parents Bill and Julie Urben. (Photos supplied)
