Keith leads Newton girls to tourney title, boys finish third

The Newton girls bowling team didn’t lose very often last season. But Waukee edged the Cardinals by 110 pins in their home tournament last December.

On Saturday, the Cardinals got a bit of redemption and Libbie Keith’s individual championship performance led her squad to the team title at the Newton Invitational at Cardinal Lanes.

The Newton boys improved their score by more than 400 pins from last year and moved up to third in the team standings.

Jordan Killmer and Logan Bown finished second and third, respectively, in the boys’ individual standings.

“We’re off to a great start this season,” Newton bowling coach Christie Hughes said. “I’m very happy with both the girls’ and boys’ finishes today. The boys were up 438 pins from last year and had two of the top three individual finishes. That’s progress.”

Newton’s girls finished second with a 2,352 last winter. They improved that number to 2,528 this season and it was enough to edge Waukee (2,479) by 49 pins. Mason City (2,021) was third for the second consecutive season.

The rest of the six-team field included Oskaloosa (1,908), Knoxville (1,742) and Sigourney-Keota (1,612).

Newton rolled a 1,663 in the opening round and led Waukee by 53 pins. The Warriors had an 869-865 advantage in Baker games, but it wasn’t enough.

Keith led the Cardinals and won the girls’ individual championship with a 425 series. She had single games of 191 and 234.

Bailey Hansen (331), Genessa Slings (327), Beka Weithers (294), Gabbie Humphrey (286) and Nevaeh Bown (248) completed the Cardinal girls’ varsity lineup.

Hansen’s best single game was a 192 and Slings rolled an opening-game 195.

“Our girls were up 176 pins from the previous year and 135 pins from last week,” Hughes said.

Waukee’s Megan Green (394) and Cora Ostrem (361) had the next two best individual series with each rolling a single game of more than 200.

Newton’s five Baker game bowlers were Hansen, Humphrey, Weithers, Slings and Keith and that group had a pair of 200-plus games.

Waukee won the boys’ team title with 2,738 pins. Oskaloosa was next with 2,695 and Newton finished third with 2,663.

All three programs improved their scores from last season. The Cardinals were fifth a year ago.

The rest of the seven-team field included Sigourney-Keota (2,427), Knoxville (2,363), Mason City (2,270) and Pella (2,106).

“We’re working on consistency between the two individual games for both teams,” Hughes said. “We’re getting there. They have really put in a lot of hard work both in our structured practices and on their own and it shows.”

Newton’s boys led Oskaloosa after the first round, but the Indians rolled a 260 in the finale of the Baker games to move past the Cardinals.

Killmer’s 414 series was good enough for second overall and Bown rolled a 392 series to take third.

Killmer opened with a 216 and finished with a 198. Bown opened with a 160 and capped his day with a 232.

Sebastian King was next for Newton with a 327 series. He had single games of 156 and 171. The rest of the Cardinals’ varsity lineup featured Owen Guldberg (322), Tamion Adams (307) and David Holmes (258).

Austin Kennedy moved into the lineup for the Baker games and was joined by Guldberg, Adams, Bown and Killmer. They rolled a pair of 200-plus games.

Luke Orton of Waukee was the individual champion on the boys’ side. He rolled a 434 series with single games of 223 and 211.