Westwood’s Roman Yuhas runner-up at Upper Peninsula Bowling Conference boys singles finals
MARQUETTE — Roman Yuhas of Westwood High School survived a grueling day on the bowling lanes before coming up just short of winning the Upper Peninsula Bowling Conference boys singles championship on Saturday at Superior Lanes in Marquette.
Yuhas advanced through qualifying and bowled in four rounds of match play — a total of 14 games — before finishing as runner-up in the championship match for individual bowlers.
He lost a two-game, totals-pins match 451-382 to Matt Meyer of Gladstone for the title.
Before that, however, he had some of the best scores of any of the bowlers from around the U.P.
Yuhas qualified third in a field of at least 60 bowlers in the opening six-game round, though his and other competitors’ totals weren’t available. All competitors rolled three initial games, then the top 54 continued on for another three games in qualifying.
At that point, the field was cut to the top 16 for single-elimination match play, each match play round lasting two games.
Bowlers were seeded based on their six-game scores, No. 1 vs. No. 16, No. 2 vs. No. 15, and so on, and it just so happened that Yuhas at No. 3 had to face off against one of his Westwood teammates, No. 14 Kaleb Lindholm, in the first round.
Yuhas squeaked by in that match, 337-334, by far his closest match of the four he would participate in.
He then defeated No. 6 AJ Dulong of Calumet 435-358 before taking out No. 7 Cole Roush of Menominee in the semifinals, 402-363.
That placed him in the finals against the No. 1 seeded Meyer.
Meyer opened match play with a 366-248 win over No. 16 Brian Boutilier of Escanaba, then downed No. 9 Bryce Salo of Iron Mountain again by the same score, 366-248, before dispatching No. 4 Killean Ryan of Ishpeming-Negaunee 448-405 in the semifinals.
In addition to Yuhas, Lindholm and Ryan, two other Marquette County bowlers also qualified for match play — No. 8 Mason Burke and No. 15 Johnny Jestila, both of Westwood.
Ryan won a pair of matches before he lost to the eventual champion in the semifinals, defeating No. 13 Hayden Henes of IM 359-299 and No. 5 Aiden Bourassa of IM 406-269.
Burke fell in his opening match, 335-292 to No. 9 Salo, while Jestila also lost in his first match, 415-378 to No. 2 Blake Flaminio of IM.
Here are the scores of other matches with bowlers’ seeding and school:
First round — No. 5 Aiden Bourassa (IM) def. No. 12 David Nanninga (IM) 349-265, No. 6 AJ Dulong (Calumet) def. No. 11 Jayden Nuttall (Calumet) 412-340; No. 7 Cole Roush (Menominee) def. No. 10 Carter Stammer (Escanaba), 318-243.
Second round — Roush def. No. 2 Blake Flaminio (IM) 349-329
Girls get their turn Saturday at Bowl-A-Rama in Escanaba for the UPBC girls singles championship.
The following two weekends will be MHSAA regionals and state finals, all to be held at various Lower Peninsula centers. Statewide, schools are broken into four divisions and eight regionals will be held within each division.
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.