In the final week of January, Wahawk bowling won four more championships. On January 27, West High hosted the annual Metro Bowling Tournament at Cadillac Lanes, where both boys and girls finished first. Later, on the 29 Cedar Rapids Prairie hosted the MVC Divisional Tournament at Cedar Creek Lanes.
Metro in Waterloo
The date was January 27, and it was finally time for the annual Metro bowling tournament. This year Metro looked a little different due to conference regulations. Typically, the metro meet consists of all four schools bowling for the highest score and finishing in four different seeds. The problem with this was that teams usually don’t get their head-to-head record affected for losing a “tournament” because that is how the conference rules lay out the scheduling. This year, the metro meet consisted of two separate meets: West vs CF and East vs Columbus. This allows teams to still gain a win or a loss but only compete against one team. Aside from the head-to-head competitions, scores were also logged towards the Metro portion, where they determine who the best team in the Cedar Valley is, as well as the top twelve bowlers. Along with meet regulations being different, so was the format. This year, Metro consisted of three individual games and ten baker games, counting towards your full score.
The Wahawks took home first for both squads, with the boys finishing first with a 5594 and the girls shooting a 4466. The boys won their side of the meet by 146 pins, which showed how much they dominated throughout the day. After individuals only, the boys had scored a 3499 and followed that up by rolling a 2095 in bakers. Junior Rush Steen led the team in individuals on the day with a 791 series, good for just more than a 263 average. Rush ended up placing second behind a strong 836 series from Columbus Catholic standout sophomore Lucas Clark. Other Wahawks to gain first team metro honors were Senior Aiden Berry, who posted a 757 to get third and Junior Davin Smith, logging a 703, filling out the last spot. The only Wahawk to make all metro second team was Senior Nick Tharp, who scored a respectable 634 for the team.
The Lady Wahawks also had complete domination the whole day after winning the individual and baker portion of the tournament. The girls held their lead the whole day, winning the tournament by over 300 pins. For the individual portion, they shot a 2770 and followed that up with five different Wahawks getting all Metro honors. Senior Macy Smedley led the tournament, posting a 606, edging out Senior teammate Maya Knight, who had a solid 602 of her own. Sophomore Megan Sommerfelt was the final Wahawk to get first team honors, rolling her own 533 series. Second Team all Metro consisted of two Wahawks. The first being Sophomore Lexi Peverill, who finished with a 520 and Junior Natalie Brown, who finished with a 509.
Divisional In Cedar Rapids
Once again, there was a different format for another annual tournament. Just a few days before the tournament, athletic directors from schools Cedar Falls, Cedar Rapids Jefferson, Cedar Rapids Prairie, Cedar Rapids Washington, Dubuque Hempstead, Iowa City High, Waterloo West and Wahlert Catholic met together to determine what the MVC-Valley side of the conference would do for this year’s conference meet. While usually there would be individual games and bakers that would crown a team champ with first and second team all conference, this year was different. Fifteen Baker games is the format the athletic directors have agreed upon, which is very different from years past.
The tournament started at 10:00 am, so the Wahawks had an early morning departure from the school at 8:00 am. On the cold ride, Coach Brandon Steen discussed with the boys about how they feel and instilled confidence that the team has what it takes to win their first divisional title under Coach Steen. In the other van, Coach Ruddy was discussing the same things, trying to show the girls that they had more than enough skill to win the division.
The boys started off the day with a decent score that was similar to the rest of the competition. This year being different then other really reflected on the score sheet just as much as it did with the format and time of day. After the first five baker games, the boys were in first place with a round of 1026 and felt good with where they were compared to the rest of the competition. Although they had a better second round with a 1033, the Cedar Rapids Prairie Hawks exploded and took the lead over the Wahawks by 60 pins. The guys knew they would need to gut it out to become victorious in this year’s competition. The guys exploded in the final round with a 1088 and made up all the ground that Prairie had above them. With a total final of 3147, the Wahawks won their side of the division by 82 pins over the second-place Cedar Rapids Prairie Hawks.
The girls started off very hot compared to the rest of the competition, taking an early lead, starting off with a 197 and 211. They continued bowling well all day, leading the event after every set of 5 games. After the first set, the girls had finished with a 942, which wouldn’t even be their best round of the day. The next 5 games were just as good, if not better, where they finished with a 980 and kept a commanding lead of that first-place finish. The last set did not need to be pretty because of the rather large lead they had over other teams. The girls finished with a very strong score of 2744, winning the competition by 174 pins over second-place Cedar Falls Tigers.
Smedley was very pleased with her teams performance on the week she stated, “I was very excited with how well we bowled as one group this week” Smedley also shared, “The improvement over the year has been insane to be apart of. Seeing our success against multiple teams at once was very satisfying.”
