Comet Macy Ross wins third district title; Charles City to host Sub-State bowling meet

By John Burbridge sports@charlescitypress.com

OELWEIN — Check out the menu at Comet Bowl, where you can order a pizza late.

They also cook up a good bowling ball.

In a sport that uses a term “Baker Game,” there should be little surprise that an oven sometimes comes into play.

“We thought that Macy’s ball may have absorbed too much oil,” Charles City head bowling coach Doug Ross said of junior Macy Ross’ strike ball. “So we decided to cook it.”

At Comet Bowl, there is a bowling ball “oven.”

“There’s rollers you put the ball on and it only goes up to 150 to 160 degrees,” Bohlen said, “but it brings out and dries up the oil from the surface of the ball.”

At the District Individual Tournament held Saturday at Viper Lanes in Oelwein, Ross was figuratively and literally hot as she bowled a three-game series of 677 in the qualifying round, then continued to bowl well in the eight-player seeded bracket (256, 205, 192) on way to winning her third district title in as many years.

“Macy was pretty much locked … at one point she rolled 10 strikes in a row between two games,” Bohlen said. “During the first three frames of the final qualifying game, she put three balls in the pocket and left 10-pins. She looked at me wondering what to do. Normally, I would move her left on the approach and keep her target the same, which is the eighth board. Instead, we decided to go right on the approach and move her target to the seventh board.

“She did that and threw six strikes in a row.”

The individual tournament consists of two appointed bowlers from each of the 12 teams in the district — 24 in all. Bowlers with the top eight three-game series advance to the single-elimination bracket.

The Comets’ other girl representative, senior Mija Cotton, had a blister problem and was unable to advance to the final eight.

The two Comet boy bowlers, juniors Kaleb Ross and Hunter Brockney, advanced to the single-elimination bracket with respective series of 663 and 621.

“Kaleb was the No. 3 seed and Hunter was No. 8,” Bohlen said. “That’s how high the scores were down there. You had to bowl at least a 621 to qualify for the last spot.”

In the first game of the bracket, Ross bowled a 223 only to get eliminated by Spencer Armstrong of North Iowa, who bowled a 238.

Brockney’s 198 first game wasn’t enough to advance past Waverly-Shell Rock’s Zack Denton, who bowled a 207.

Armstrong and Denton would eventually face each other in the finals where Armstrong won, 208-207, after Denton’s split-provoked open in the 10th frame.

Next up for the Comets is Sub-State which will be held for the first time Tuesday at Comet Bowl. The state-qualifying tournament starts at 10 a.m.