By STEVE

BROWNLEE

Journal Sports Editor

MARQUETTE — A pair of southern Upper Peninsula boys each finished in third place in the state in singles bowling, while the Westwood girls reached the team ultimate round before bowing out in the semifinals at the MHSAA Finals in high school bowling held at multiple locations downstate on Feb. 28 and March 1.

Just about all bowlers from the U.P. Bowling Conference participated in regional competition, also downstate, the weekend before that with top finishers advancing to the state finals.

Both team and singles competition were held, with the best in each category during an opening, qualifying round then advancing for more bowling at both regionals and states.

The Westwood girls team was the lone team from an area school that advanced out of the opening round of the state finals into knockout rounds.

The Patriots’ five-girl team competed in a 16-team qualifier at the finals at JAX60 in Jackson, and needed to finish in the top eight to advance.

Westwood did just that, placing fourth with a 2,843 pin total. This round consisted of eight Baker-style games, where teammates alternate frames to come up with a single-game score, and two “regular” games, where bowlers roll their own games that are totaled for the team score.

The Pats’ Baker games there were 158, 180, 139, 141, 118, 134, 137 and 148 for a 1,155 total, a 144.4 average. Baker scoring is notoriously difficult to produce high scores, as bowlers all need to bowl well at the same time to be able to string strikes to approach or exceed a 200 game.

In regular bowling, Westwood had five-girls games of 843 and 845, a 168.8 average.

The Pats missed first-place Livonia Clarenceville by 101 pins, but more importantly, beat out the ninth-place team — the first one to miss the knockout stage — by 211 pins.

With their fourth-highest score in qualifying, that meant Westwood was seeded No. 4 in the eight-team bracket that determined a state champion.

Each round was a best-of-5 in the Baker format. Pinfall from the qualifying round was erased at this point, and total pinfall was also not used in the knockout, only the number of games won.

In its opener, Westwood defeated No. 5 seed Coloma 3-0, winning its games 143-127, 141-135 and 157-133.

The Patriots advanced to face No. 1 Livonia Clarenceville, which also won its opening round 3-0. There, the Detroit suburban team won 3-1. Westwood took the opening game 141-127, but Clarenceville roared back for wins of 160-137, 196-145 and 128-103.

Clarenceville advanced to the state championship match, where it again won 3-1 over No. 2 Adrian Madison after losing the first game. Madison won 166-131, then Clarenceville turned it around with victories of 204-134, 123-106 and 187-166 for the state title.

Here are roundups from each of the three divisions that area teams were in, Divisions 2, 3 and 4. This includes info on all UPBC teams:

Division 2

The U.P. highlight in the division with the largest U.P. teams and bowled at Century Lanes in Waterford was Iron Mountain senior Blake Flaminio finishing third in boys singles.

With 56 boys competing in singles, Flaminio placed sixth in qualifying with 1,261, a 210.2 average. That put him 64 pins behind No. 1 qualifier Brayden Siders of Carleton Airport, but more importantly, with 16 bowlers advancing, left him 79 pins ahead of the first one out in the unlucky 17th place.

In singles, there is no Baker scoring possible, so each knockout round consisted of total pins over two games.

Flaminio opened with a 400-323 win over No. 11 seeded Evan Nowicki of Ada Forest Hills Eastern, bowling games of 214 and 186.

Flaminio advanced again with a 419-403 victory over No. 3 Nicholas Suemnick of New Boston Huron, producing games of 197 and 222.

Then Flaminio was stopped in the semifinals in a 420-359 loss to No. 7 Jordan Butler of Vicksburg as Flaminio had games of 165 and 194.

Butler went on to become state champion with a 400-387 win over No. 12 Griffin Lindemann of DeWitt.

Additionally in boys singles, senior Carter Williams of Marquette qualified in 54th place with a 946 total, rolling games of 247, 169, 134, 147, 131 and 118. His first game was the second-highest opening game in the field, exceeded only by a perfect 300 produced by eventual No. 3 seed Suemnick.

In girls singles, two bowlers from Ishpeming-Negaunee had close calls in qualifying before missing the 16-bowler cut for the knockout stages.

Junior Sara Harvey finished in a tie for 20th with 1,092, missing the final qualifying spot of 1,110 by just 18 pins. Her games were 210, 235, 129, 164, 209 and 145, a 185.0 average.

And senior teammate Anna Salminen came in 26th with 1,054, missing the cut by 56 pins as she had games of 185, 224, 177, 155, 158 and 155, a 175.7 average.

The unlikely No. 11 seed Kierra Pinter of Tecumseh worked her way through three matches to take the state title, the final two both won by less than 15 pins.

In the team portion of the finals, I-N finished 11th in girls qualifying with 2,831 after Baker games of 185, 137, 141, 126, 157, 180, 129 and 134, then regular games of 846 and 796. These girls missed the eighth-place cut by 147 pins.

The IM boys had an even closer call in their team competition, placing ninth with 3,139 and missing the cut by just 25 pins.

The regional that U.P. teams attended on Feb. 21-22 at the Gaylord Bowling Center in Gaylord used the same format as the finals, with two teams and seven singles bowlers advancing.

Ishpeming-Negaunee finished second in the girls team division with 2,941 to make it, while Iron Mountain was fifth with 2,572, Escanaba seventh with 2,262, Calumet ninth with 2,189 and Marquette 12th with 1,958.

In boys team, IM advanced in second place with 3,152, while Marquette and Calumet tied for eighth with 2,750, Escanaba was 10th with 2,636 and I-N was 11th with 2,617.

In girls singles, Harvey was second with 1,138 and Salminen sixth with 1,057 to advance, and in boys singles, Flaminio was sixth with 1,173 and Williams seventh with 1,141 to earn the final two state finals spots.

Division 3

Just one U.P. bowler qualified for the boys singles state finals in Jackson, but he made the most of it by reaching the semifinals before bowing out, just like Flaminio did in Division 2.

Also like Flaminio, senior Matt Meyer of Gladstone qualified in sixth place out of 56 boys with a 1,278 total, rolling games of 192, 299, 206, 222, 188 and 171. His 299 game — only possible by rolling the first 11 strikes then leaving a single pin on the final ball while going for a 300 — was the highest in qualifying and allowed him to average 213.0.

He missed top seed Joshua Gunderson of Croswell-Lexington by 85 pins, but also beat out the hard-luck 17th place bowler by 69 pins.

Meyer opened the knockout round with a 427-348 win over No. 11 Charlie Brown III of Hopkins, putting together games of 234 and 193. He followed it up by outscoring No. 14 Maxx Burdick of Sanford-Meridian 448-393 with lines of 223 and 225.

Then he was knocked out by No. 2 Hunter Ross of Almont 443-406 despite games of 203 and 203.

Ross went on to win the state title in his next match, surviving a 377-375 scare vs. the No. 1 Gunderson.

In girls singles, Westwood junior Averie Vial just missed the knockout stages, rolling 1,067 to tie for 18th place. She missed the 16-bowler cut by just three pins after she rolled games of 185, 212, 124, 161, 163 and 222 to average 177.8.

No. 5 seed Paige Vallad of Standish-Sterling won the state title despite No. 1 seed Jacey Thibodeau of Madison Heights Bishop Foley beating the rest of the field in qualifying by 139 pins as she averaged 232.3.

In a regional held at Spare Time Lanes in Cheboygan, Westwood won the girls team competition with 2,771 to advance as Gladstone was ninth with 2,245.

In boys team, Westwood had the best U.P. finish of fourth with 2,958, Gladstone was sixth with 2,795 and Menominee 10th with 2,562, though those teams didn’t advance.

In boys singles, however, Meyer won the boys regional with 1,277, while Vial was sixth for the girls with 989.

Division 4

The U.P.’s lone representative at the Division 4 finals held at Northway Lanes in Muskegon was senior Logan Cadeau of L’Anse, was finished 22nd in boys singles qualifying with 1,120, missing the cut by just 23 pins. He had games of 178, 187, 181, 207, 120 and 247 for a 186.7 average.

No. 6 seed Alex McCarthy of Saginaw Nouvel Catholic Central won that state title.

In a regional held at Thunder Bowl Lanes in Alpena, L’Anse was the only U.P. D-4 team and Cadeau finished fourth in boys singles with 1,247 to advance.

In team, the Purple Hornets’ girls were fifth with 2,108, while the L’Anse boys were sixth with 2,396.

Story contents based on emails sent by Marquette Senior High School assistant bowling coach Maria Virch. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.