Mackenzie Banas and Sydney Urben led the way to a second-place finish for the Wayland girls’ bowling team in its season opener.

The Lady Wildcats finished runner-up the Sparta.

Urben, a senior co-captain, outbowled everybody on the 18 teams competing with a 207 and 226 for a two-game total of 433.

Banas, a junior, was rolling in the No.  3 spot and came up with 145+205=350, which placed her eighth on her first ever tournament all-star team.

Leadoff senior Marissa Bruinsslot bowled a 193+139=332, which placed her just outside of the top 10 individuals.

Senior Jessica Henderson bowled a 138+122=260.

Amber Beggs proved to be a trooper, as her thumb got stuck inside of her ball within the ninth frame of the first game. This tore up her thumb and she had to ice it for the rest of individual matches.

“Despite obvious hardships of an injury, her attitude and smile was flawless.” said Bruinsslot, co-captain.

Beggs bowled most of the first game where first-year senior Metztli Cruz finished her game that ended with a 132. Metztli continued in the fourth team spot with a 109 in her first full varsity game.

Bakers proved to be quite the struggle for the Lady Wildcats Their scores were 142+163+136+136+115+117=809, placing them in second place for
for qualifying. But Wayland lost 307 to 279 to the Spartans.

“Today we learned the meaning of resilience, jumping back from times of difficulty, coming together as team and loving each other on the difficult days,” Bruinsslot commented. “I watched Sydney show everybody the true meaning of a Wildcat. She out rolled everybody today.

“We have a deep team that I’m extremely blessed with in my senior year. Now we have something to build off of! One step at a time.”