By Jason Wesseldyk
Sports Editor
WYOMING—Three county teams qualified for the bowling state finals.
That included both the boys and girls squads from Allegan.
The Allegan boys won their regional—which consisted of six baker games and three team games—with 3,623 points, placing them more than 100 pins ahead of runner-up Grand Rapids Christian.
The Allegan girls, meanwhile, secured the third and final qualifying spot with 3,190 pins, placing the Tigers three pins behind second-place-finisher Hastings. Wayland won the regional title with 3,309 pins.
The state finals are slated for Super Bowl in Canton starting Friday, March 4.
“Both groups of kids have worked so hard to get where they are,” Allegan co-coach Don Lamb said. “As coaches we are very proud of each and every one of them. It was great that there were so many parents, family and friends there rooting the kids on.”
The Allegan boys started regional action with baker games of 160 and 131 before upping those scores to 170, 179, 208 and 178. That score of 1,026 had the Tigers seeded second going to the team games.
With scores of 862, 898 and 837, Allegan locked up the regional title.
Top scores for Allegan came from Shane Wesche in game one (195), Trenton Nagelkirk in game two (235) and Ryan Brink in game three (206).
The regional title was the first for the Allegan boys.
“Bringing home the title was a team accomplishment,” Lamb said.
In addition to Wesche, Nagelkirk and Brink, the boys team consisted of Carter Wagner, Andrew Snyder and Anderson Zoch.
The Allegan girls had a score of 911 after the baker games to be seeded second behind Wayland’s total of 919.
Team games saw the Tigers post scores of 663, 789 and 827. Savannah Beilfuss led Allegan in game one (164) and game two (176), with Leah Snyder posing a 214 in game three.
The trip to the state finals is the second straight for the Tigers.
Wayland’s team scores were: 795, 807 and 788.