On Jan. 3, the Home of the Wildcats, Collier Lanes, hosted the Oakland Athletic Association Singles Championships. This is open to all OAA school’s varsity programs. The boys had 69 participants and the girls had 47 bowl to crown the 2021 singles champion. Oxford did well in their second tournament event of the year. The Wildcats had three boys make the final eight and two girls advanced into the championship round.
Leading the way for the Lady Wildcats was sophomore Kaya Coffman. Kaya was the Number 1 seed with a strong 550 series. She was joined in the Final 8 by junior Macey Strevel who qualified in the 7th seed with a score of 455. Both girls lost their opening rounds but battle hard. Ashley Bales 185, Katlyn Peck 202 and Coffman 220 also earned metals for high games.
“We’re very proud of these young ladies. They have been working very hard to get better and today showed they are making progress,” said Wildcat coach Claude “Jr.” Lafnear.
On the boy’s side, three Wildcat bowlers advanced. Tommy Mace shot games of 267, 210 and 205 to earn the Number 1 seed with a 682 series. Cameron Lantzy shot games of 258,194 and 174 to earn the 6 spot; and Jason Paslean battled his way into the number 8 spot with games of 183, 212 and 226. Paslean and Lantzy would battle their way through the field to advance into an “all-Oxford” Finals. In the finals, Cameron would hold off Jason to capture the title of OAA Champion in a very close match 192 to 180. Zander Brown also bowled well and earned a medal for his 258 game.
“An All-Oxford final was awesome to see. We haven’t had that before and having it this year was great. We sent a message to the OAA schools that we are ready to compete and I expect us to be strong going forward,” Lafnear said.