WHS boys shrug rebuilding tag to take 5th in tourney

“I am so impressed with the way the boys performed today,” exclaimed coach Sherry Miklusicak. “Our regular conference season found us in eighth out of 10 places. I would have hoped for more, but having lost four seniors (from last season) we knew it was going to be a tough battle after a third place finish the year prior. Today the gentlemen can boast fifth out of tenth place finish!”

In the conference tournament, everything is based on total pins, with no head-to-head matches.

Wayland started the day with an 840 team game and was in seventh place.

The Wildcats did a little bit better in set two with an 874, 34 pins better than the first game.

“Nothing was crazy at this point,” Miklusicak said. “We were consistent and had our sights on doing a little bit better the next game. At this point, we were still holding onto seventh place.”

Wayland then came up with an inspired 984 as a team in the third set. The middle of the pack was so close in these matches that this shot the local group all the way up to third place.

“I just had to keep checking that scoreboard above the lanes,” the coach said. “I wasn’t seeing things…we really were in third place and with the girls in first, this was one proud Wayland Wildcat!”

Michael Foley, the team’s only senior, rolled games of 176, 212, and 179 to lead the boys.

“What a nice way to end the conference season for him. It wasn’t an easy year with the all the weight on his shoulders to carry on a winning tradition all the while fighting that virus that has struck several of us for at least six weeks.”

Bryan Franck had a good day as well, with 192, 163, 175. Dillon Smith had 144, 191 and Jordan Peters stepped up in the sixth frame of game one to save it with a 157, 158 and a nice 205.

“This third place was kind of a big deal,” Miklusicak said. “It is hard to move lanes and find a new line without any practice balls and we had moved after every game. Now it was time to move again and we really hated to leave the hot lanes we were on.

“We were only a few pins from topping first place Byron Center. Unfortunately we did have to move another pair of lanes and that caused problems in our first set of two Baker games. These lanes were a little tighter and most balls didn’t have that nice snappy finish on the back ends.”

That along with some easy spare misses yielded games of only 110 and 138. The Wildcats now found themselves back in fifth place.

The second set of Baker games were better with a 154 and a 193.

“I am really proud of these boys and that is just showing how much they have improved this year and it says a lot for next year and what we have to look forward to,” the coach commented.