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HARTINGTON - The Hartington-Newcastle Wildcat and Lady Wildcat bowling teams wrapped up their respective season’s last week in the District B-4 District Bowling Tournament held at Hilltop Lanes in Dodge on Feb. 5.
The Wildcats made it to the finals where they met up with returning Class B State Champion, Wayne and came up a few pins short, going down 3-2.
The Lady Wildcats were defeated 3-0 by Howells-Dodge after defeating Plainview 3-0 to open team play in the tournament.
Alex Elks did grab a ticket to the state tournament by placing third individually at Dodge with a 545 series which placed him third.
Aiden Petersen of Wayne took top honors with a 596 series, teammate Dylan Jensen was second after rolling a 567, Cooper Anderson of Norfolk Catholic was right behind Elks at 543 and Benjamin Haschke of Wayne grabbed the last ticket for state in fifth after putting up a 536 series.
Elks finished 21st in the qualifying round at state after rolling a 575 series with scores of 121, 176, 161 and 117.
Jensen was the top qualifier to move on at state with a 778 while Colin Meysenburg was second with a 743.
The Wildcats returned all five bowlers from the team that qualified for state last year, but the team fell a little short this season.
“We had everybody back so we were a little disappointed,” said HNS coach Nate Holan. “We really had our opportunities, we just fell a little short.
“The guys had really been putting in the ex tra work the past month and a half. Memphis (Ulrich) has probably been our anchor bowler this season then the four seniors are kind of all bunched together and it seemed like one or two of them would come to the front each meet.”
The Wildcats went 16-9 over the season and won six of their final seven meets, meeting up with undefeated Wayne in the final head-tohead competition of the season.
They also competed in three tournaments, placing second in a couple of them according to their coach.
The Lady Wildcats completed their season 12-12 and were led by Mya Thone with a 136 average.
“Our girls really were a good group to coach, they listened and really tried to improve,” said Holan. “We have started a youth program which should help with getting better numbers out and just advancing or improving the kids coming out to bowl in high school.”
LADY WILDCATS:
Aaralynn Collier-#9, average-124, high game-177; Ali Ford-#3, average-127, high game-151; Elsie Haahr-#6, average-87, high game-108; Ell Haug-#2, average-111, high game-141; Allison Huesers-#5, average-96, high game-119; Mya D Thone-#1, average-136, high game-174
WILDCATS
Nate Arens-#3, average-120, high game-136; Barrett Bruning-#1, average-169, high game-237; Alex Elks-#2, average-157, high game-235; Christian Fiscus-#8, average-154, high game-175; Ben Kleinschmit-#6, average-165, high game-214 Cell Martell-#5, average-94, high game-94; Memphis Ulrich-#4, average-172, high game-242
