On Saturday, November 7, the Millard West Unified Bowling team competed in its home invite. There were a total of seven schools that competed in the invite including teams from all three Millard high schools as well as a team from Fremont and Ralston. The meet was structured by teams competing against each other to give them each a seed, then based on seed they earned previously, teams in a single elimination tournament.

The Wildcats sent two teams to the meet, an A and B team. The two teams were not were not separated based on skill level, rather, they were just randomly assigned. Millard West’s A team consisted of junior Ivan Smith, senior Jake Parkman and sophomore Jillian Weland, on the other hand, the B team was junior Will Stoneburner, sophomore Jack Carroll, junior Connor Jeffrey and sophomore Emily Ciesieski. After seeding was complete, the A team was seeded fifth, and B was seeded sixth.

Once tournament play began, it worked out to where each of the Millard West teams matched up against each other. The teams had a very close match, but in the end, the Millard West A team came out on top 2-0. The two Millard South teams also faced each other when tournament play began. This was also a very close matchup with the B team coming out on top 2-0 as well. In the final matchup, Fremont came out on top also by a score of 2-0.

 When it was all said and done, Fremont were the victors of the meet, followed by Millard South’s B team. The Millard West A team came home with a third place finish. This was a strong start in the first invite of the season and a great showing by the team.

“I believe that team A performed very well for our first tournament,” Parkman said. “I still believe that there is definitely some room to grow and develop more skill.”

The Millard West B team also had a decent showing, coming home in fifth place. Overall, the team was pleased with how they performed, however, they hoped for a little bit more and believe they can improve before the next invite.

The Wildcats did well for the first invite of the season, both teams competed strongly and did the best they could. However, there is always room for improvement. For the Millard West A team, it will be about taking those next steps to get up there with the schools that finished higher than them. Things like picking up extra spares and pins whenever possible will really push them over the hump. For the B team, it is just about being more consistent, trying to get up to six or more pins each frame will really help them get a higher score overall.

“Both teams can improve consistency and increase the number of pins knocked down,” coach Jan Lehms said. “I was pleased with the overall performance, I saw some many improvements.

Overall, the Wildcats are happy with how the first invite went. Hopefully, the team will be able to improve between now and the next invite to place even higher. The Millard West Unified Bowling Team will be in action again on Thursday, November 12,  so make sure to come out and support our team.