It was a long but rewarding day for Brighton High School’s junior varsity bowling teams.
On Sunday, Feb. 1, the JV bowling teams bowled in their first JV-only tournament of the year at Super Bowl in Canton. Both the JV 1 and JV 2 teams attended.
The tournament consisted of three full games and four baker games, a type of game where each person bowls only two frames. The tournament was all team-based, which means that the scores of all five games at the end were added up, and that was the score for that day.
A total of 23 teams attended the tournament, and seven out of the 23 teams were JV 2 teams. Brighton, Northville, Dearborn, West Bloomfield and Plymouth all had 2 JV teams, and Livonia Stevenson brought three, reflecting how bowling is growing as a sport across Michigan.
Both teams started out strong. The JV 1 team had a total score of 801, and the JV 2 team started with a 636. The first games tend to be some of the most powerful and significant, as the oil on the lanes is constantly changing. By the end of the day, the oil is often gone or pushed to the other side of the lane. It can be difficult to adapt to these changing conditions. Despite this, the JV 1 team was fairly consistent all day with games of 801, 812 and 768. For their baker games, they earned scores of 190, 174, 179 and 203, ending with a total score of 3127, ultimately landing them sixth place. The JV 2 team scored 636, 618 and 588 for individual games, and their baker games were 129, 103, 83, 118, with a total score of 2275, ending in 23rd place.
For this tournament, the top 16 teams had the opportunity to continue in the match play. Match play for this tournament consisted solely of baker games. After they made the announcements of who made it to match play, the bowling alley quickly emptied to just the last 16 teams. After every baker game, more teams were eliminated; the alley became more tense as the games went on.
“We went strike-for-strike against the other team, with people yelling and cheering every frame,” junior Camdyn Rice said.
Following match play, JV 1 ultimately placed fourth in the tournament, losing to Walled Lake Western. It was the furthest a Brighton JV team has made it in the tournament in a long time. On Feb. 15, the JV 1 team went on the follow up this performance with an even stronger one, placing third overall at the state tournament. Their strong finish capped off an impressive season and set a new standard for future Brighton JV bowlers.
