March 28, 2024

Humphrey, Stice earn state bowling medals; Cardinals place fifth in 2A state tournament

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DES MOINES — The towel and penny worked.

Newton High’s junior Madison Humphrey and senior Melanie Stice claimed Iowa High School Class 2A Girls’ State Bowling Tournament medals Tuesday. The two Cardinal bowlers shared with their fans going into the tournament they each had a lucky charm.

The charms and their talents worked at Plaza Lanes in Des Moines for the second time in as many weeks.

Humphrey rolled a team-high 405. She opened the individual games with a 174, but finished it off with a 231 game, pushing her into seventh place overall at the state tournament.

Humphrey’s lucky charm? A towel, which she admitted she hasn’t washed. She pats it up and down in her hand and wipes her bowling ball off each time before rolling it during competition.

“It was amazing to receive a state medal. I’ve never done that,” Humphrey said. “I wish my first game was better, but my second game was amazing. I had six strikes in a row and felt I could do it.”

Stice, who led the Cardinals to a district substate championship on the same lanes a week earlier, finished with a 383 on games of 190 and 193. That score put her in 10th place at the state meet.

Stice’s lucky charm? A penny given to her by a friend before the substate tournament.

“It was surprising to get the medal because they skipped over someone and I didn’t think I got it,” Stice said. “I was going back to talk to my mom then had to run through the crowd to get back up there. As a team, it was our highest score this season. It’s sad to be a senior because I’ll miss my teammates.”

As a team, Newton ended up fifth at its first Class 2A state tournament. This is the first year there have been three classifications — Class 1A, 2A and 3A — in bowling for girls and boys. Newton had been competing in the Class 1A postseason.

“The girls did a great job today,” said Brett Jacobs, Newton bowling coach. “They came really close to there goal of shooting a 2,700 with a 2,633. They still left several single pins on the lane and a few splits. If they could have cut those in half, they were probably have came close to shooting a 2,800.”

The Cardinals were sitting in third place, three pins ahead of Western Dubuque — 1,774-1,771 — going into the Baker games. Keokuk and Fort Dodge were first and second at the time with 2,007 and 1,850, respectively.

Keokuk, which placed four bowlers in the top 10 individual scores, won the Class 2A state title with a 2,971 pin count. Fort Dodge placed second with 2,807. Keokuk’s Sydney Kramer edged out her teammate Alyssa Hemann for the individual state title, 429-426.

Western Dubuque put up four 200-plus scores in the Baker games for a 1,025 total, which propelled it past Newton into third place with a final total of 2,796. Denison-Schleswig had a 924 Baker games score to climb into fourth place at 2,688.

“We went into today with the goal of doing better than we did at substate,” Humphrey said. “We accomplished that. We bowled well at state and left it all on the lanes.”

Newton’s Baker game scores were 172-160-159-210-158 for a 859 total. Newton was fifth with a 2,633 total, which was better than their team district substate championship score of 2.475.

Clinton finished sixth at 2,478 and LeMars was sixth at 2,363 to round out the state team standings.

Senior Erica Bailey finished 17th with a 365 (184-181). It was Bailey’s second state tournament after finishing 15th in a Class 1A state tournament as a freshman.

Freshman Alyssa White was 29th at 335 (163-172) and senior Courtney Tabor placed 39th at 286 (106-180). Junior Mariah Gonzalez was 44th with a 261 (125-136).

Both White and Tabor said their goals going into the state tournament were to improve on their substate scores. They did. White had a 333 a week ago and Tabor, who posted her top game score Tuesday with a 180, had a 259 at the substate tournament.

“It was a great way to wrap up the end of the season, having the girls shoot their highest match game of the season at the state tournament,” Jacobs said.

Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
641-792-3121 ext. 6535 or jsheets@newtondailynews.com