Cards roll past rivals on unusual home surface
By Eric Arnold NDN Bowling Columnist
The Newton girls bowling team won their second tournament of the season Saturday at Cardinal Lanes.
Tougher lane conditions made for lower scores as Newton was 200 pins shy of their score a week ago at Knoxville, but its total of 2,405 was still close to their second-best score last season and enough to crush second place Knoxville by 338 pins.
In their first Little Hawkeye conference tournament of the year, the Cardinals showed they are a clear favorite to win their fourth consecutive conference championship.
Newton was led by senior Brandi Collins with a 335 individual series, good enough to win the overall singles event. With strikes hard to come by, Collins ground out a good score limiting herself to only four opens.
“We are disappointed with our performance today but glad to get the win,” Collins said. “We know we can make better shots than we did today so we’re looking to improve at out next tournament on Jan. 2.”
Newton paired up with Pella
Christian on their set of lanes. And with the Eagles rejoining bowling after a year hiatus, their pool of talent and lesser bowling ball equipment helped make the lanes tougher. Their plastic bowling balls disrupted the oil pattern, which showed in some unpredictable ball reaction for the Newton girls.
The Cardinals only had two clean frames in their two team games as poor shots on their first ball left them with a lot of multi-pin spares on the day.
Junior Noella Van Brogen rebounded from a week ago throwing seven strikes in her individual games as did sophomore Emily Braga who had the team’s high game on the day with a 171. Sophomores Becky Collins and Shelby Bare also struggled on the tough conditions but were able to muster up some strikes and Bare was able to convert two splits into spares.
The Baker team games started out much the same as the Cardinals only had four strikes and nine opens in the first two games. But the third and fifth games the team was able to come up with five strikes each game to score 205 and 200.
“We’re all disappointed with the performance we had today,” head coach Seth Banwell said. “We know we can bowl better than we showed today. We’ve improved so much since last year, and we expect more, but we’ll take the win!”
A few of the girls have been nursing sore thumbs so the winter break comes with good timing to get their hands healed up in time for their second and final home tournament at Cardinal Lanes on Jan. 2.
Another reason for the lower scores is that Newton practices at 6 a.m. on lane conditions left over from the league bowling the night before; much different than the freshly oiled lanes they bowled on Saturday.
Without Newton fielding a boys team this season there were only three boys teams in their side of the tournament.
Norwalk’s Kyle Brown led all singles scores with a 385 individual series.
Norwalk and Knoxville should have a good battle all season as their talent levels seem to be close. Norwalk beat Knoxville by only 45 pins in the baker team games but won the first round of team games handily as they were able to adjust to the lane conditions quicker rolling a 922 (184 average) total their second team game.
Newton Girls Individual Scores: Brandi Collins 170-165 (335), Emily Braga 158-171 (329), Shelby Bare 144-159 (303), Becky Collins 154-146 (300), Noella Van Brogen 136-158 (294). Baker Team Games: 138, 144, 205, 157, 200. Newton Totals: 762, 799, 844= 2,405.
Girls Results: 1. Newton 2,405, 2. Knoxville 2,067, 4. Norwalk 1,805, 4. Pella Christian 1,281
Boys Results: 1. Norwalk 2,775, 2. Knoxville 2,587, 3. Pella Christian 2,075.
