The Wayland High School boys’ varsity bowling team Wednesday afternoon evened its season record at 1-1 with a convincing 27-3 rout of Grand Rapids Catholic Central at the Rock ’N Bowl Lanes. The girls also won by a lopsided margin.
In their first conference match of the season, the tone for the day was set in the first Baker game when the Wildcats struck in four of the first five frames and had a spare to go with it. The took the Baker 183-169.
The second Baker game was weaker, but so was the Cougars’, so the home team found itself up 10-0. Jayse Henkel led the team and marked in all four of his frames, as did Dominik Baker, three of which were strikes. Anchor Kyle VanEss marked in three of four frames.
In match one, Wayland took eight of nine possible points.
“Catholic Central has a couple of pretty good bowlers, but our boys handled things,” said coach Sherry Miklusicak.
Junior Carter Decker took his point 159-143.
“He is back with us after a year off to play basketball (and travel baseball),” Miklusicak explained. “We are fine tuning some skills, so just watch out!”
Next to take his match point was Warren Smith (busy kid as well, a dual sport athlete that the basketball team shares). He is a senior and this is his first year bowling.
“He has some pretty serious raw talent,” the coach said. “I remember his grandfather bowling leagues with my dad (Frank Rybiski) when I was a kid. But if you knew my dad, he probably bowled with everybody at some point.”
Warren took his point 198-129.
Junior Dominic Baker who Miklusicak said has put in a lot of hard work over the past year, dominated his match point 225-186.
“You just have to see him bowl,” the coach said. “His energy is contagious on the team and I don’t know what we would do without him!”
Anchoring the team, junior Kyle VanEss, “has worked just as hard if not harder than anyone on his game. He leads by example and is just a great kid with an infectious smile,” Miklusicak said.
He stroked a 242 game and beat a fine 220 by his opponent.
In the junior varsity action, freshman Louie Harnish was on fire with nine strikes in a row, before settling for a 276 game. He comes from quality bowling stock with sister Bella and brother Stephen.
Finally, a briefly lackadaisical Wildcat squad came alive in the eighth frame of match game two and won by 36 pins.
Raynie Arendsen, Warren Smith and Kyle VanEss (208) all took their points.
Over on the JV side, freshman Trevin Berens had a personal best of 140 which is remarkable as he just joined the team a few days ago.
The Lady Wildcats also won handily, 29-1.
“It was a great afternoon for our ladies in our first conference match,” said girls’ coach Eric Bottrall. “Unfortunately for Catholic, they only had two female bowlers, so they take zeroes for the missing three bowlers scores.
Wayland’s highlights:
• Madison Bottrall had games of 127 and 121.
• Brooke Trumbull rolled 75 and 100.
• Ava Harnish 107 and 114.
• Izzy Botwinski 145 and 108.
• Haven Baker 180 and 153.
Bottrall added, “Hopefully, we have full team opponents for the rest of the year. We work hard to improve every week and I can see a lot of good progress with our young team.”