The Vicksburg Boys and Girls Bowling teams swept Otsego in a January 12 conference match at Airway Lanes in Kalamazoo. The girls’ team includes Eliza Reed and Madelyn Steigenberg in 9th grade, and Camlyn Reed, Hailey Matrau, and Zoee Roodbergen on the varsity team. The boys’ varsity team includes Jordon Butler, Brady Gibson and Emmett Bostocky in 12th grade, Xavier Hart, 11th grade, Carson Bowling, Anthony Foote, 10th grade, Chase Williams, 9th, grade. JV Bowlers are also brought up for varsity matches – Brett Hess, Ely Connin, Alden Jacobs in 12thgrade and Mitchell Chmelovski in 11th grade makes the boys much stronger in the depth of their team.
In the January 12 meet, the Vicksburg boys and girls won decisive victories over Otsego. They started out their match with two regular games where the highest total team points win the game. After the two regular games, the bowlers bowl two Baker games where each bowler bowls 2 frames per game with total team points going to the winner.
The sister duo of Carolyn Reed and Eliza Reed had games respectively of 167 and 151 and Madelyn Steigenberg finished with a top score of 149. Zoee Roodbergen finished strong for the team with a score of 141 in her second game. All the girls had higher scores in their second game than their first one. Totals for their first two regular games were Vicksburg, 1312 and Otsego girls, 1154. When adding the two Baker games to their total scoring, the Vicksburg girls won over Otsego. dominating by a score of 23-7.
The boys’ varsity team crushed Otsego in its march January 12 with high game scorers Xavier Hart, 200, Jordan Butler, 248, Chase Williams, 174, Emmett Bostocky, 210, and Mitchell Graham with a 151 game. The varsity boys defeated Otsego with a whopping score of 1777 to 1646. Including the two Baker games, the boys won with a total score 27-3.
At the next meet on January 17 at the Southwest Michigan League, the Vicksburg boys and girls finished very strong, defeating Otsego again at Airway Lanes. In this league, Vicksburg is currently in 1st place in both boys’ and girls’ varsity teams. The boys again bowled strongly, rolling over Otsego by a score of 1950 to 1475. High scorers were Chase Williams, 234, Xavier Hart, 225, Carson Bowling, 221, Emmett Bostocky, 218, Jordon Butler 204, and Brady Gibson, 169. The final score with the Baker games for the boys’ victory was a dominating 29-1 triumph.
The girls’ varsity bowling team followed with another great victory over the Otsego girls on January 17. The girls made a strong showing again against Otsego by a lopsided score of 1269-1057. High scores for the girls were Camlyn Reed, 167, Eliza Reed, 148, and Madelyn Steigenberg, 142. Including the Baker games, the girls crushed Otsego by a score of 28-2.
Currently, the boys’ varsity bowling team is in 4th place in the Wolverine Conference. However, they are in first place in the Southwest Bowling League.
The bowling teams and members must finish in the top 4 in their Regionals to qualify for state competition. The state team tournament is on a Friday with 7 bowlers making up each team at Continental Lanes. On Saturday, individual bowlers compete in the State tournament with the boys bowling in the morning and the girls bowling in the afternoon.
Coach Mullins said they practice three times a week with their bowling skills and techniques. The parents are very supportive of the team and the coaches, as is the Parent Booster Club. Most of the bowlers have two bowling balls at each match and some have extra backup ones; however, the bowlers are only allowed to have two on the ball return when bowling in a match. The bowlers are very supportive of each other and when they bowl on Saturdays in the Southwest Bowling League, they have some fun by putting on a crown each time the bowler gets a strike. The crown usually is passed along to everyone on the team.
Congratulations to the Vicksburg Bowling team and coaches Ed Mulliins, Chris Adams, Michael Hart, and Marissa Hernandez on a successful bowling season.
