The Wayland boys’ varsity bowling team made the qualifying brackets Saturday in the 16-team Lowell Invitational at Ionia Lanes.
Coach Sherry Miklusicak noted Ionia Lanes was where both the boys’ and girls teams swept the tournament last year.
The Wayland boys found themselves in third place after two individual games. Lanes 3 and 4 challenged the next set of Baker games and they had fallen in the standings, but they came back strong on lanes 5 and 6 to capture a fifth place finish, and the top 6 were to make the cut. Tournament directors instead chose the top eight teams because there were so many tight matches.
Fifth-seeded Wayland was scheduled to bowl against the fourth place team, Greenville.
“Unfortunately, we were directed to bowl on the same lanes 3 and 4 that we struggled with earlier,” Miklusicak said. “We definitely didn’t have that pair of lanes figured out and lost the first Baker match. Our guys rebounded back and took the second Baker match easily. Unfortunately, the pin total for the two games wasn’t in our favor and our tournament day ended.”
Highlights for the Wildcats individually were:
• Christian Courser rolled a 164 and 163 and marked in 12 of 16 Baker frames.
• Mark Musgrave III a 145 and marked in 9 of 16 Baker frames.
• Joe Laidler 162 and 181 and marked in 13 of 16 Baker frames.
• Jarod Geerligs 178 and 181 and marked in 9 of 16 Baker frames.
• Dillon Smith 194 and 202 and marked in 14 of 16 Baker frames.
The Lady Wildcats, meanwhile finished eighth out of 16 teams.
Seniors Dillon Smith and Amber Beggs qualified in the top ten individually, making their first all-tournament team this year. Smith finished seventh and Amber Beggs finished fifth.