The Wayland boys’ varsity bowling team finished 10th in the 18-team Portage Northern Invitational Friday and then competed in the Cedar Springs tournament Saturday.

“This (Portage) tournament proved a challenge for all teams today as scores were pretty low for all the 18 teams that made the trip to Kalamazoo,” said coach Sherry Miklusicak. “This tournament is advantageous for a couple of reasons. The first is that the oil pattern is different from typical ‘house shots’ and more closely mirrors that pattern bowlers will face in regionals and state finals.

“The other reason is that we face mostly teams from the north of Wayland in our O-K conference and yet our regionals are aligned with Kalamazoo teams. This proved devastating for our boys’ and girls’ chances for team representation at state finals. The girls and boys teams would have easily advanced if in a Grand Rapids region.”

High points of the day were Dillon Smith with a 187 game, Bryan Franck with a 191, as well as ending the day with the Wildcats’ best Baker game this season of 174. Jordan Peters’ highlight was making nine of 12 marks in the Baker games combined.

Miklusicak praised the efforts of bus driver Russ Porteous, father of varsity girls’ bowler Erin Porteous.

“Upon our early arrival, we learned at least three other teams had cancelled. I believe there were 13 boy teams competing with the top eight qualifying for Baker rolloffs. Unfortunately we didn’t make the cut. I am not sure what place we actually finished as there wasn’t any paperwork available for coaches at the end of the tournament

High individual games were from Dylan Roberts 168 and Dillon Smith 167.

“Even though our day was pretty dismal, we are getting better counts on our first ball,” Miklusicak said. “That improvement still has a ways to go and then we can focus on improving spare shots. Any time you leave more than one or two pins your spare pickup percentages will be a challenge.”