Humphrey signs to bowl for St. Ambrose

On Senior Day it was jokingly said Madison Humphrey began bowling before she was born. The Newton High senior has been bowling for quite some time, but the start was a little later.

Bowling since she was 3, Humphrey made a commitment to further her competitive bowling career into the collegiate ranks. Humphrey signed a National Letter of Intent Wednesday to bowl next year for St. Ambrose University in Davenport.

“St. Ambrose has a really good academic program for criminal justice. The bowling team looks amazing,” Humphrey said. “When I went for my visit, the bowlers and coaches just accepted me as part of the team, even though I hadn’t fully decided yet.”

Being in the top two bowlers for Newton’s girls team since her freshman season, Humphrey had set her sights on bowling for a college team. She proved to herself she can compete with college-level bowlers a few weeks ago in a scholarship bowling tournament.

At that tournament, Humphrey recorded her career-high game, rolling a 268. Her career-high series is 693 in a Cardinal practice.

In high school competition, Humphrey’s high game is a 263, which she bowled as a junior, and her high series total in high school competition is 451. She leads the Cardinal girls with a 178.2 game average this season and a 356 series average.

“I believe I’m coachable and I’m willing to do anything to help the team succeed,” Humphrey said of what she thinks she can give to the Fighting Bees’ team. “I just hope to bring them big scores.”

Humphrey is a left-handed bowler. She said it gives her some advantages because there’s not many bowlers throwing down her side of the lanes.

“I make my own mark and I’m set. No one messes with my side of the oil (on the lanes),” she said. “There’s been multiple times I’ve said I was done with the sport, but I kept going. When you’re not having a good game there are so many variables you can change. Once you find it, you stick with it.”

Humphrey, who has garnered all-district and all-conference honors for three years, helped lead the Cardinals to the Class 2A state tournament in 2015. She earned the seventh-place individual medal at state and Newton finished fifth as team.

Newton is currently 9-0 in dual competition with one final dual meet Saturday at Pella. During her freshman season, she was ranked third in the state in 1A for several weeks. Newton went 13-0 in regular-season duals her sophomore season and the Cardinals were 9-3 a year ago.

“Everyone is different in their bowling styles. My great-grandmother starting bowling and it’s trickled down through the family. To be able to continue that tradition is pretty cool,” she said.

Humphrey is the daughter of Melanie and Dave Humphrey of Newton.

Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
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