Hopkins’ Brenden Gossman finally accomplished something he had been flirting with all during his four-year career in high school bowling.
The Viking senior standout Saturday made it to the state championship round in the Division 3 state tournament at Northway Lanes in Muskegon. He lost in the title match to Dawson Campbell of Cheboygan, 427-363.
Gossman, seeded first in the final round of 16, defeated Wyatt Meyers of Belding 426-289 in the opening round. He then bested Zachary Crawford of Saginaw Swan Valley 381-279. He won the semifinal round 413-404 over Jack Dalman of Portland.
Gossman bowled a fine 208 in the first game of the finals, but shot a 155 in the second.
Teammate Jonathon Ryan also made the cut for the sweet 16. Seeded 15th, he won his opening match 382-374 over second-seeded Jacob Johnson of Livonia Clarenceville. He lost 349-294 in the quarterfinal round to Josh Falcoski of Muskegon Oakridge.
Gossman knocked down 1,273 pins in the six games rolled in the preliminary rounds to win the first seed. Ryan had a pin total of 1,113 to qualify for the Sweet 16.
The Hopkins boys’ team finished 11th among the 18 teams that qualified for the team competition. The Vikings rolled Baker games of 160, 172, 155, 199, 154, 147, 222 and 121 and then 886 and 880 in the two match play contests for a total of 3085.
Ogemaw Height had the highest team score at 3441, but Gladwin emerged as the Division 3 team champion after bracket competition.
The Hopkins girls’ team was 12th among 18 teams. The Lady Vikings rolled Baker games of 162, 144, 166, 176, 137, 135, 140 and 165, and then recorded scores of 714 and 746 for a total of 2665 pins. Corunna won that round of the competition and went on to capture the team title.
(Cover photo courtesy of Lisa Wierckz)