HARTINGTON — The Hartington-Newcastle bowling team had split results last week in its lone dual on the schedule.
The boys defeated Howells-Dodge 17-4, while the girls lost by the same score.
“One of our (boy) bowlers was sick so we had to bowl short and found a way to get it done,” HNS coach Nate Holan said. “The scores were a little up and down but they did what they needed to do to win. We had a couple good games to help get the team total. We need to be a l ittle more consistent to allow us to have less of the ups and downs from g ame to game.”
Barrett Bruning had the best round of the day with a 202 which he combined with another 130 game.
Other scorers include Ben Kleinschmit (146, 163), Alex Elks (115, 160) and Christian Fiscus (156, 128) while the team’s Baker game score finished up at 120.
“Barrett has continued to be our most consistent bowler,” Holan said. “He has stepped up well when we need someone to.”
As for the girls, it was a bit of a struggle unfortunately on their home lanes.
“We kept it close in both games and gave ourselves a chance to ge t the team total but just didn’t finish off the end of the games very well,” Holan said. “We just need to do a better job getting better counts on our first ball and after spares to help finish off our games.”
The Lady Wildcats were led by Dary Myo (147, 176), Faith Pinkelman (110, 127), Aaralynn Collier (136, 98), Ell Haug (84, 105) and Ali Ford (82, 91) and the team finished with a Baker score of 114.
“Dary has been doing a great job of throwing a consistent fi rst ball and giving herself a chance at an easier spare,” Holan said. “This has led her to having a lot of high scores like she had this week.”
Fatih Pinkelman said she wasn’t disappointed in the overall result but sees things that need to be improved upon.
“Howells has been a good team and they continue to be a good te am, but we are very friendly with them because we do have, relation s and friends in that group,” She said. “They were just unfocused and not prepared for the competition. They were more in it for talking and chatting. We just have to fix that habit of theirs.
“Dary Mayo is an amazing bowler, and she did great this weekend. This week, Aaralynn and I were both really struggling just to keep our ball on the lane. It was just difficult for us. We were definitely an equal team and we definitely can beat them. It’s just the lack of focu s.”
The Wildcats will take some time off to get some practice in as they prepare to get back on the lanes after Christmas, Dec. 28 at the Wayne Tournament.