Winter sports have been underway for the past ten weeks and the boys and girls bowling teams hosted Bellevue West at Western Bowl on Tuesday, Jan. 18. Going into this dual, the girls were 10-3 and the boys were 4-10.

The format of this dual was a Baker game where bowlers bowl two individual games and then go into a best two of three Baker series. The first two rounds had five bowlers. The first round, the girls had sophomores Lacy Nemitz and Gwendolyn Naumann and juniors Jillian Weland, Jayci Reimers and Emily Ciesielski. Naumann scored 175 pins and Nemitz scored 168 being the highest two in the first round. The team had a total of 745 pinfall and scored a total of seven points this round because of four individual points and three for total pinball.

For the boys first round, they had sophomore Kai Smith, juniors Sean Murphy and Drew Lehman, and seniors Nolan Nemitz and Bryan Stuckenschmit. Smith scored 184 points and Lehman scored 180 points. The team had a total of 823 pinfall and scored six points total with three from individual points from Smith, Lehman and Stuckenschmit and three from total pinfall.

“I felt pretty good before we went into the dual because Bellevue West was never really difficult for us to beat in the past, so I had good expectations,” Naumann said. “My goals were to get as many strikes as I could and beat the girl I was against and for us to win. I bowled pretty well; there were some complications but I got steady after a while.”

In the second round, the girls highest scorers were Lacy Nemitz with a score of 199 and Weland with a score of 158 with a team total of 799 pinfall. The girls had three individual points and three total pinfall defeating the Thunderbirds 6-2. For the boys, Smith and Lehman were the highest scorers again with Smith scoring 192 and Lehman scoring 164 to add to the team’s total pinfall of 784. This round the Wildcats fell short of the Thunderbirds by only scoring one point from individual points.

“Going into the dual, I knew my strength as an individual but knew the team would have to come together to be at Bellevue West’s level,” sophomore Kai Smith said. “We didn’t bowl our best but you can’t always have a great game. We’ll just have to adjust and step up to the level of our competition.”

In the last round of the dual, the all giver bowlers bowl two frames each, consisting of a Baker game. The girls bowled a 121 and the Thunderbirds bowled a 138 score giving them five points. Although the last round gave a big boost to the Thunderbirds, it just wasn’t enough to catch the Wildcats. The end score was 13 to 8. 

“Bellevue West has some good bowlers,” head coach Megan Smith said. “It’s usually pretty tight competition between our teams. We felt a little more confident with our girls because the teams weren’t as evenly matched and our girls have been bowling very well lately, but we knew our boys had the ability to win as well.”

In the last round for the boys they bowled a 181 and a 147 while the Thunderbirds bowled a 235 and a 213. This round the Wildcats didn’t score any points and the Thunderbirds collected five resulting in a Wildcat loss of 14 to 7. 

The girls go into their next dual 11-3 and the boys 4-11 preparing them for districts in the next few weeks.