NEWTON — In their final regular-season home meet, Newton’s bowling teams powered past visiting Oskaloosa Saturday at Cardinal Lanes.
The Cardinal girls stayed undefeated, 11-0, for the season with one more regular-season meet remaining. They decked Oskaloosa’s Indians, winning by 409 pins — 2,078-1,669.
The Cardinal boys posted a 2,226-2,012 win over Oskaloosa. They improved to 7-4 on the season.
Newton’s final regular-season match up is this Saturday at Val Lanes in Des Moines against Knoxville and host Norwalk.
“This will be a great match to have before the regional tournament. We’ll be going against our rivals Knoxville and Norwalk,” said Newton bowling coach Seth Banwell.
Knoxville, Norwalk, Oskaloosa, Pella Christian, Des Moines Hoover and Clarke of Osceola come to Newton Feb. 18 for a Class 1A regional bowling tournament. Qualifiers advance to the state tournament Feb. 24 in Des Moines.
Junior Erica Bailey set the pace for Newton’s girls with a team-high 318 on games of 158 and 160. Melanie Stice, another junior, posted a 293 (147-146) and sophomore Madison Humphrey bowled a 280 (131-149).
Sophomore Mariah Gonzales tossed a 275 and had the highest single game for the Cardinals at 166. Kirsten Young, a freshman, bowled a 240 (113-127) and junior Courtney Tabor had a 231 (88-143).
The Cardinal girls’ Baker game scores were 136, 114, 117, 142, 163 for a team total of 672.
Sophomore Bryan McMahon came eight pins short of a 200 game for the Cardinals. McMahon led the Cardinals with a 342 on games of 150 and 192. Juniors Payton Cox and Alex Bare finished with 323 (144-178) and 314 (173-141), respectively.
Nick VerSteeg, a freshman rolled a 297 with games of 168 and 129. Freshman Reid Miller bowled 261 (125-136) and junior Andrew Lammey had a 198 (105-93).
Newton’s boys had Baker game scores of 139, 137, 116, 131, 166 for a total of 689.
“While the scores were not very high this week, I’m sill very proud of the bowlers on their wins,” Banwell said. “I feel these were the toughest lane conditions we’ve faced this season and it showed in the low scores thrown by both teams.
“The lanes were extremely dry and it was hard to find the pocket. Many bowlers used plastic spare balls to limit the amount of hook in their bowling balls. We didn’t throw very many strikes, but did a fairly decent job picking up our spares to edge out our opponent.”