The Wayland boys’ varsity bowling team Thursday qualified for the Division 2 state bowling championship by placing third among 14 teams at the regionals at Spectrum Lakes, Wyoming.

The girls’ squad, however, in a day of surprises, failed to defend their regional crown and missed the cut for qualifying for state by 80 pins. The Lady Wildcats were fresh from winning their second straight O-K Gold Conference title.

It was the first time Wildcat boys have made state since 2009. Mason emerged as regional champion and DeWitt was runner-up.

The 2022-23 varsity includes Kyle VanEss, Dominik Baker, Wil Dewing, Jayse Henkel, Chandler Caruso, Stephen Harnish and Aydin Tolliver.

The boys were hovering around third place during the first session of the day in eight Baker games.  Wayland rolled games of 172, 132, 204, 192, 160, 179, 195, and 171.  Out of 16 frames:  Kyle VanEss (the sparkplug) had 7 strikes and 6 spares, Dominik Baker had 7 strikes and 3 spares, Chandler (Choo-Choo) Caruso had 4 strikes and 6 spares, Stephen Harnish had 4 strikes and 6 spares, and Aydin Tolliver had 12 strikes and 7 spares.

Coach Sherry Miklusicak said, “I knew we were in third place, thanks to our parents. They did a phenomenal job of watching other key teams. The boys had no idea of where they were in the standings. I told them I didn’t know where we stood but to just assume we were in fourth and only 10 pins out of third place.”

The Wildcats tore up the lanes in the first match.  Stephen Harnish rolled a fabulous 236, Kyle VanEss shot 201, Aydin Tolliver 179, Chandler Caruso 177 and Dominik Baker and Jayse Henkel combined for a 175 game that was good enough to propel Wayland into first place with a team score of 968.

“I was pacing and couldn’t stand still,” Miklusicak said. “Every two Baker games we switch lanes and we switched again after that terrific team game. We had a hard time finding a groove on the new lanes. Thankfully, our boys found it in the tenth frame and lit it up.”

Kyle VanEss (160)struck out in the tenth, followed by Jayse Henkel (169) with two strikes. There was 50-plus pins right there. Stephen Harnish finished with a 183, and we ended with Aydin Tolliver (189) taking his first two rolls as strikes as well.

The team total of 838 was a bit lower than the teams in second and third place so the Wildcats fell a bit in the standings, but still had a healthy command of third place because the fourth place team was about 100 pins lower.