Jackson Area Teams Dominate Bowling Regionals

Hanover-Horton High School won the Michigan High School Athletic Association Division 4 bowling tournament at JAX 60 in Jackson on Saturday.  Photo by Jeff Steers, JTV Sports.

By Jeff Steers
JTV Sports

(March 20, 2021 10:10 PM) Some of the best high school bowlers in the state of Michigan reside in the Jackson area.

They proved it on Friday and Saturday at various regional events.

Four teams won regional titles and more than two dozen individual bowlers qualified for the state bowling tournament. The Michigan High School Athletic Association state bowling tournament starts this Friday with boys’ bowling and the girls’ tournaments on Saturday at various events.

The format of the regional tournament was a little different due to COVID-19 restrictions. Each team had five bowlers bowling four games each to create a team total. The top 10 individual scores qualified for the state tournament. There were no Baker games bowled at the region tournament.

The top two teams – normally three – qualified for the state tournament.

Northwest High School dominated the Division 2 bowling tournament at Kalamazoo. The Mounties finished with a team score of 3,951 pins to defeat conference foes Coldwater by more than 200 pins.

Western finished 12th overall with a team total of 3,199.

Northwest had four bowlers in the top 10 as Ryan Wenman was sixth (812), Damein Milliman was right behind him (805), Shon Breslin finished eighth (801), and Brayden Metcalf was 10th (794).

Garrett Havanic led Western by finishing in 32nd place (687).

In the girls’ competition, Western was 10th (2,579) and Northwest placed 11th (1,757).

Karrah Wiggins of NWHS qualified for the state tournament by finishing 10th (747) in the girls’ tournament.

Ellie Hoyt led Western individually with a 41st place finish (562).

Grass Lake won the boys’ Division 3 competition at Niles. The Warriors finished with a team total of 3,994. Napoleon also qualified for the Division 3 state team tournament by finishing second with 3,679.

Hillsdale was third (3,668), Jonesville placed seventh (3,577), Columbia Central finished 11th (3,344), Michigan Center was 13th (3,126), and Leslie ended up in 15th place (3,051).

Individually, Grass Lake placed three bowlers in the top 10 to qualify for the MHSAA state individual finals. Clayton Weir finished second (874), Parker Horvath was right behind him (873), and Jack Marshall was ninth (829).

Brandon Teddy of Napoleon had a solid day placing fifth with 849, Alexander Bumpus of Jonesville was sixth at 844, and Parker Brown of Hillsdale placed 10th with 804.

Alex Hultberg finished 15th for Leslie (770), Caleb Gritzmaker of Columbia Central placed 18th (766), and Michael Edwards led Michigan Center with a 32nd place finish (710).

Hillsdale won the girls’ Division 3 team tournament with 3,451 and Jonesville was second at 3,435.

Grass Lake finished fifth (3,236), Michigan Center finished right behind them (3,177), Columbia Central placed seventh (3,146), and Napoleon was 11th (2,860).

Hillsdale placed three bowlers in the top 10 as Karissa Manifold was second (811), Chloe Manifold finished fourth (794), and Rainee VanHeerde placed fifth (771). Jonesville was led by Alexis Hamrick who finished third (810).

Courtney Lowe of Grass Lake qualified for the state tournament by finishing seventh (748), Kaelin Pond of Michigan Center placed eighth (732) and Izzi Green of Columbia Central was ninth (731).

Caleigh Brown of Michigan Center missed the top 10 by four pins (724) and Alexandria Burgess of Napoleon led the Pirates with a 29th place finish (652).

Jackson Kremer of Lumen Christi won the Division 4 regional title at JAX 60 in Jackson. He finished with a four-game total of 866. He rolled a 276 in the final game to earn the title.

Teammate Hunter Richmond will join Kremer at the state finals as he finished eighth with 721. Layne Holda of Hanover-Horton finished sixth overall at 736.

Lumen Christi finished fourth as a team (3,256), Hanover-Horton was fifth (3,253), East Jackson placed seventh (3,116), and Vandercook Lake was right behind the Trojans (3,113).

Jordan Tripp led East Jackson with a 16th place finish tallying 689 and Camren Lackey of Vandercook Lake was 26th scoring 645.

Hanover-Horton won the girls’ team competition with 3,172.

Lumen Christi finished fourth (2,682), Vandercook Lake was sixth ((2,657), and East Jackson was 12th (2,396).

Kassidy Alexander led Hanover-Horton with a third-place finish with 736. Samantha Dwight of East Jackson was second overall (744), Arielle Oakley of Vandercook Lake was fourth (692), and teammate Brianna Langley placed eighth (660).

Alexandra Soltis led Lumen Christi with a 17th place finish (595).

In Division 1 at Canton, Jackson finished 12th as a team in the boys’ tournament. Braeden Caldwell finished ninth overall with 785 to qualify for the state tournament.

The Vikings were ninth in the girls’ competition as Lauren Webb qualified for the state tournament finishing 10th with 633.

The Division 1 state final will be held at Thunderbowl in Allen Park; Century Bowl in Waterford will host the Division 2 finals; JAX 60 in Jackson will host the Division 3 finals; and the Division 4 final will be at Super Bowl in Canton.