You can pin the title of Jack Pine Conference champion on the Gladwin girls’ bowling team.

 

The Flying G’s rolled through the league dual-meet season with a perfect 7-0 record and won the title outright by placing first at the Jack Pine Team Challenge Tournament at Snowbird Lanes in Harrison.

 

I don’t want to sound arrogant about it, but I’m anticipating kicking some butt this year and we dominated our league,” said Gladwin coach Kent Crawford. “There were only one or two matches where we thought there was a chance we could lose and the girls pulled together and came through. They are driven to succeed and they never give up.

 

They may get down a little bit here and there, but then they hunker down and support each other to the end.

 

They have great camaraderie and cohesion and they keep each other going. We’ve been having a ball all year.”

 

The Flying G’s piled up a grand total of 3,456 pins at the tournament, led by junior Carley Van Tiem, who rolled a 248 that day.

 

Carley was our top bowler all year,” said Crawford. “She had rough week, which dropped her average a bit, but 248 is a very good score for any high school bowler.”

 

Junior Allison Hager bowled a 199 for the champions.

 

Junior Kasidey Easlick finished the regular season with a 178 average and a high game of 217. Sophomore Kelcie Farison had a 150 average with a high game of 210. Freshman twins Mackenzie and Bailey Weston had big debut season, with Mackenzie averaging 165 with a high game of 212 and Bailey averaging 150 with a 210 on her resume.

 

Gladwin made it to the state finals as a team last season and has ideas of punching that ticket again. The Flying G’s are ranked No. 4 in the state heading into the Division 3 regional at Sparetime Lanes in Cheboygan on Feb. 29.

 

We’re all excited about the state tournament,” said Crawford. “If the girls bowl as well as they did at the Jack Pine Tournament, we will win the regional.”

 

Beaverton also had a nice season, finishing second in the dual meet standings with a record of 6-1. The Beavers were also second at the challenge tournament with a total of 2818. Cheyenne Ficek won the Jack Pine Mid-Winter Singles Classic with a four-game series of 760 that included games of 219 and 213 and led the Beavers all season with an average of 169. Hallie Brink averaged 159 and recorded a high score of 215.

Clare and Meridian each went 4-3 in duals with Harrison next with a 3-4 mark.

 

At the tournament, Harrison was third with 2659, followed by Clare with 2530 and Meridian with 2507. That all shook out with Clare and Harrison tying for third in the overall standings and Meridian in fifth.

 

The Hornets were led by Natalie Lewandowski, who averaged 164 and shot a 212 during the season. Angela Kinna averaged 153 and had a 183 game.

 

Clare’s big shooter was Emerald Forbes with a 163 average and a 193 high game. Natalya Prosser averaged 148 and threw a 199.

 

Meridian’s Brittany Altman had a big season, averaging 171 with a high game of 206.

 

Houghton Lake went 2-5 in duals and finished 6th at both the tourney and in the overall standings. Farwell and Roscommon went 1-6 with Farwell earning seventh place by outscoring the Bucks at the tournament.