The Wayland boys’ varsity bowling team came within a whisker of claiming its third win this season Wednesday night, but it had to settle for a 15-15 tie against conference foeForest Hills Eastern.
The Lady Wildcats, meanwhile, came up just short in a 17-13 loss to FHE.
It was a hot night for senior Jared Geerligs on the lanes. In the first game he had a personal best of 194. He then proceeded to better his personal best with a 206 (his first 200 game!) and he took both of his match points.
“Jared bowled with us as a freshman and we are fortunate to have him with us this year as he knew we needed the help,” coach Sherry Miklusicak said.
“After some weak performances by some of our starters over the last couple of matches, I felt it was a good opportunity give someone else a chance who has been practicing hard, improving, and looked good in warm-ups. Unfortunately, it was a struggle and the first Baker match was lost by only two pins.”
In Baker game two, with a new substitution, the Wildcats jumped into a commanding lead with a 224 game and were back on top 6-4 by taking total Baker pins as well
But in the first match they only took two points out of nine , withGeerligs and Joe Laidler winning their points.
So the ‘Cats had to take seven of the remaining nine points to win.
Alan Beggs, Geerligs and Dillon Smith took their points.
“We need to give Joe Laidler a pat on the back, as he gave it all he had in the tenth frame,” the coach said. “He had either four or five strikes in a row and needed the first strike in the tenth to win his point. He threw one heck of a ball and rocked the pocket. It was such a powerful shot that it had to be a strike for sure! Oh my gosh, the rotten 9 pin dared to stay standing! Grrr…”
The Lady Wildcats rolled the best they have all year, but come up just shy of a win. They jumped out to a commanding 10-0 lead after taking both Baker games with scores of 184 and 157.
Sophomore Kendra VanKoevering has been rolling the ball very well the last couple of matches and took her point in match one as did fantastic freshman Bella Harnish. But the lead had diminished to 12-7.
The ladies only needed four of the remaining 11 points. It was VanKoevering who took the only point in match two. A couple of the other individual games were lost by a spare.
Miklusicak said there was some outstanding bowling by Forest Hills Eastern’s Brianna Boomer, who shot an amazing 267 game and a 198 game.