The Wayland boys’ varsity bowling team finished third in the O-K Gold/Green Conference bowling tournament Saturday.

The Wildcats knocked down a total of 3,277 pins, well behind champion Byron Center’s 3,673, but not far behind South Christian’s 3,351. Because of the finish, coach Sherry Miklusicak’s group finished third in the final league standings, which mirrored the finishes in the tourney.

“We missed second place by about 70 pins, that is an average of just one spare per game,” Miklusicak pointed out.

In the first game Wayland shot 834 with Cameron Heintzelman’s blazing high game of 243, Austen Beggs’s 225 and Michael Foley’s 193. and was in in second place after game one. In the second game, the Wildcats slipped a bit, only scoring 812 for all five bowlers. Cameron Heintzelman led game two with a 195. Game three was a bit stronger again with a 933. High games were by Austen Beggs 210, Cameron Heintzelman 204, and Michael Foley 189.

The Baker games were 167, 212 and 190. Sophomore Bryan Franck saw some more action for the day in games two and three of the Baker games, helping the team with two strikes and two spares.  Sophomore Jordan Peters also got in to see some action in the last two Baker games giving his team 3 strikes and a spare in his four attempts.

Heintzelman qualified second in the post-conference tournament with a series of 243 + 195 + 204 = 642 and Beggs qualified fifth with a 225 + 173, + 210 = 608.

Heintzelman (average 195.71 – which doesn’t include his non-conference 300 game) and Beggs (average 188.67) made the O-K Gold/Green all-conference team, placing fifth and seventh, respectively. Honorable mention accolades went to Nicholas Couturier (172.46).

“Nick really turned up his game at the end of the season!” Miklusicak said.

Jesse Miling finished out his senior year averaging 171.63.

“Austen Beggs and Cameron Heintzelman were very valuable this season as co-captains,” the coach commented. “I always sought out their opinions on my decisions and they consistently gave very helpful advice to the less experienced bowlers, as well as each other. Austen and Cam (the man) have bowled most of their lives.”

PHOTO: Cameron Heintzelman finished fifth individually to make the all-conference bowling team.