ISHPEMING — Meet host Westwood took advantage of the home lanes advantage to sweep all four of its matches at an Upper Peninsula Bowling Conference high school meet held at River Rock Lanes in Ishpeming on Saturday.

This marked the final regular-season meet of the winter, with schools moving on to UPBC finals events over the next three Saturdays. This Saturday will be the team finals to be held at Recreation Lanes in Iron Mountain.

After that are the boys singles finals at Superior Lanes in Marquette on Feb. 8, then the girls singles finals at Bowl-O-Rama in Escanaba on Feb. 15. The two weekends after that are MHSAA regionals and then state finals, all to be held at Lower Peninsula centers.

On Saturday at River Rock, the boys team won the Patriots’ closest match, 26-14 over Gladstone, while the WHS girls posted a 34.5-5.5 win over the Braves. In addition, the Westwood “C” team downed Gladstone “C” 36-4, while Westwood D dropped L’Anse C 31-9.

Individually, Patriots junior boys bowler Johnny Jestila ripped off a 231 game, while WHS junior girl Averie Vial had a 209.

In addition, the Westwood boys team posted a 200 Baker-style game, where individual bowlers alternate frames to come up with a single game score. High games in this format are notoriously hard to attain, since most or all of a team must be striking at the same time to come up with high games.

The day’s biggest individual games came courtesy of several out-of-town visitors, however. Iron Mountain senior Blake Flaminio popped a 267 game along with a 201, while Gladstone senior Matt Meyer made a big impression with nine strikes in a row in his 256 game.

The other 200-plus shooters were also from the boys side. Gladstone senior Bryce Carlson shot 217, IM senior Bryce Salo and junior Chase Hallman each posted a 205, and Menominee senior Cole Roush earned a 201.

In some other big Baker games, the IM boys had a 216 and 207, while the Gladstone boys posted 207.

Ishpeming-Negaunee and L’Anse each won one of their team matches Saturday. The I-N girls defeated Iron Mountain 33-7, while the Mountaineers prevailed over Ishpeming-Negaunee in their boys match 37-3 and in the C match 36-4.

L’Anse was a 40-0 forfeit winner of Menominee in that girls match, while the Maroons prevailed in their boys match over the Purple Hornets, 26-14.

Marquette was involved in only one match Saturday, its D team defeating Calumet’s C team 40-0.

In the meet’s other matches, Escanaba swept Calumet, the boys winning 32-8 and the girls prevailing 33-7.

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