Cardinal bowlers split dual at Clarke

The Cardinal girls prevailed 2,413-1,922, while the boys took a close 2,664-2,530 loss to the Indians at a very dry Alley Bowl in Osceola.

Freshman Madison Humphrey led the Cardinal girls with a first-round total of 412 (219, 164). Behind her were senior Bethannie Hughes with a 356 (197, 156), sophomore Eric Bailey with a 351 (187, 164), junior Bailee Stier with a 301 (142, 159) and senior Ella Daft with a 251 (138, 113). Junior Makayla Tabor rolled a non-scoring total of 166 (80, 86).

“After a two-week slump losing to Knoxville, the girls started bowling like they did at the beginning of the season,” Newton coach Seth Banwell said. “I am very proud of the girls’ performance today and how they handled the tough lane conditions. They made the right adjustments using the oil in the center of the lane to their advantage.”

The girls struggled a bit in the Baker games, rolling scores of 125, 132, 180, 151 and 154, which Banwell hopes to improve on in the last remaining meet of the regular season.

Newton’s boys nearly recovered from a slow start in their individual games with a massive Baker score, but still fell short. Leading the way in the first round was freshman Bryan McMahon, who totalled a 363 (189, 173).

Backing him up was senior Dylan Van Sickle with a 318 (139, 179), sophomore Payton Cox with a 301 (145, 156) and freshman Jake Karlzen and sophomore Alex Bare with identical 300 scores made up from games of 168 and 132. Sophomore Andrew Lammey finished with a non-scoring round of 280 (134, 146).

“The lane conditions were very dry, which resulted in several missed spares to the left and many Brooklyn (hitting the pocket on the opposite side as normal) strikes,” Banwell said. “Several of the guys used their less aggressive spare ball just to stay right of the head pin.”

The boys made a quick adjustment after that, however, rolling an impressive season-high 239 in their first Baker game. They followed that up with a 148, 169, 194, 155 for a second-half total of 905, which fell just short of completing a comeback.