By Jason Wesseldyk
Sports Editor
BATTLE CREEK—It was a long—but gratifying—day of bowling for members of the Otsego girls team on Sunday, Jan. 8.
Taking part in the Battle of the Bakers Tournament in Battle Creek, the Bulldogs bowled a total of 19 baker games and finished third out of 22 teams.
The Otsego boys also competed, but failed to advance past the qualifying round that consisted of 12 baker games. The top eight teams advanced.
“This is always one of the biggest and best tourneys all year,” Otsego coach Chuck Kinnane said. “There were teams from all over the state.”
The Otsego girls finished the qualifying round seeded sixth, thereby qualifying for the championship round for the second straight year. In the championship round, teams went head-to-head in a best-two-of-three baker game format.
Otsego opened with No. 3 seed Bronson. After splitting the first two games—Otsego taking the first and Bronson taking the second—the Bulldogs claimed game three by four pins.
The Bulldogs’ semifinal match against Coloma also went to three games, but this time Otsego fell by two pins.
That put the Bulldogs in the third/fourth-place match, which they won over Olivet in two straight games.
“The girls could have let the semifinal loss get them down, but they all picked each other up and rallied to get ready to take on Olivet,” Kinnane said. “They came out firing and never let off the gas.”
The girls team consisted of sophomore Mercedes Edney, juniors Wybie Burke, Paige Bender, Lily Jones and two-time state qualifier Alicyn Klok along with senior captain McKinley Kinnane.
The previous day, the Otsego teams took on Gull Lake in a Southwest Michigan Conference match. The Bulldogs prevailed 3-0 using the league’s “unique” scoring system, while the Otsego girls fell 3-0.
Using traditional scoring, the boys match was tied 15-15 after both baker games and both regular games. The girls match, had Gull Lake prevail 17-13 with the traditional scoring system.
“The scoring system we use in that conference doesn’t always tell how close the match really was and these matches were a perfect example of that,” Kinnane said.