This weekend, Oxford’s boy bowlers battled extremely hard in the Regionals, but could never get rolling and finished 6th. They were in the top 3 or 4 and in the hunt from games one through three but ran out of gas in game four. Top finisher for the Wildcats was Jake Love. Jake was solid all day and finished 17th out of 74 bowlers.
“This was a day you absolutely needed you’re A game. The field was strong and mistakes would cost more than normal. We were stuck in ok mode all day,” Coach Claude “Jr.” Lafner said. “We had times when we got going but we couldn’t keep it rolling.”
The girls also had an amazing field to compete in. The team is extremely young but they weren’t going to back down. Starting in the 6th spot after Round 1, the girls moved up one spot each round and finished 3rd. They had a season high 940 game and bowled with great heart and determination all day. The Oxford ladies missed the cut by a mere 10 pins.
Senior Co-Captain Grace Meyer led the way and qualified for next weeks state finals. She earned the 10th spot by just one pin shooting 759 for the 4 games. Her Co-Captain and fellow senior Lily Boothe started slow but showed great leadership and battled with 2 strong games in games 3 and 4. The young Wildcat bowlers Freshmen Maddie vonKnorring (734) finish 17th Sophomores Tessa Bonk (724) finished 19th and Macey Strevel 24th (694).
“This was a gutty performance today. These two captains kept everyone positive, calm and motivated,” Lafner said. “The girls all gave everything they had. The work and preparation they did paid off. I’m not sure the young girls realize finishing 3rd in this field is a strong statement of what the future holds.”
Both teams were to bowl Lake Orion on Monday. Lake Orion led the Regional tournament all day but faltering in Game 4 but held on to the 2nd qualifying spot. The match Monday was to crown the OAA red Division champion for the girls.