Comet freshman Noah White runner-up, CC senior Claire Girkin repeat medalist at State Bowling Championships

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

WATERLOO — To say that Noah White has good hand-eye coordination may be selling the Charles City freshman short — or at least of one limb shy.

White actually has good hand(s)-eye coordination — as in two hands — as evident with his runner-up performance to cap the Class 1A Boys State Individual Tournament, Wednesday at Cadillac Lanes.

Like all four of the semifinalists who emerged from a field of 32 state-qualifiers, White employs a two-handed release. When he gets locked with his right-sided offerings that often top 18 miles an hour as often displayed on Cadillac’s ball-speed tracker, White can string resounding strike after resounding strike that can turn a 36-lane house into an echo chamber.

The trick for two-handed, high angular-rotation rollers is to (quietly) pick up spares — especially corner-pin spares. But for White, who made the top-eight cut with a three-game preliminary series of 704 before defeating elimination bracket No. 3-seed Jack Mastberger of Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn (213-162) after Mastberger rolled a 300 game in the preliminary round, and then Malcomb Clark of Monticello (204-172) in the semifinals, spare attempts are becoming automatic.

“I just keep my eyes on the pin all the way through my release,” said White, apparently eschewing the “spot bowling” approach. “And I watch the ball all the way down the lane … I never turn away.

“I have been bowling this way (two-handed) since I was 8-years old, and I developed good hand-eye coordination with it.”

White continued to bowl well in the championship game against No. 8-seed Vann Lessig of Vinton-Shellsburg, recording a double early in the match and covering his leaves. But in the eighth frame, White left a 5-7 split, that — with Lessig amidst a string of seven strikes and an 8-count to end the tourney — he needed to pick up to stay in the match.

Comets head coach Doug Bohlen took time to discuss the situation with White before his crucial spare attempt.

“He told me to move over a couple of boards,” said White, whose second ball missed the 5-pin by a half a board on the right. “I just missed my mark.”

Lessig won the state title after defeating White 262-212.

Don’t worry. White will be back at Cadillac. Not just — hopefully — for state tournaments in three years to come, but next month as he and Charles City senior Payton Hadley qualified for the Pepsi Youth State Tournament to be held March 17 at the Waterloo house after both won their respective brackets at the recent district tournament at the Super Bowl in Forest City.

“I love this house,” White said of Cadillac Lanes.

White was the lone individual qualifier for the Comet boys.

The Comet girls had four individual qualifiers, including returning state-medalist Claire Girkin.

The Charles City senior made the single-elimination cut with a 599 series. As the No. 5 seed, Girkin drew St. Albert senior Georgie Bohnet in the quarterfinals.

A fourth-place finisher from last year’s state tournament, Girkin started the match with four strikes. She continued to bowl well throughout what would be a “clean” (no open) game while picking up a difficult 4-5 split (in between them is the only spot to place the spare shot) in the eighth frame and covering a 10-pin in the “foundation” ninth-frame.

But like Lessig did against White in the boys championship, Bohnet finished strong with a string of strikes on way to a 252-236 victory.

Kylee Kirchner of Vinton-Shellsburg defeated Molly Bramble of Louisa-Muscatine 219-204 in the championship match.

Rylee Pulliam of Clarinda defeated Bohnet 257-137 in the third-place game.

Girkin, Kennady Bigwood and Kloey Tebbe of Camanche, and Olivia Gardner of St. Albert all received fifth-place medals.

Charles City had three other qualifiers for the girls individual tournament. With a 575 series, Hadley was 12 pins shy of the top-eight cut. Junior Darian Hesse (470) and freshman Kinleigh Bahe (445) were the other CC qualifiers.

The day before at the Class 1A Team Championships, Charles City’s boys — consisting of White; juniors Jayden Lopez, Keaton Ross, Shayne Groesbeck and Zach Putney; sophomore Sullivan Gerleman; and freshman Joey Robel — missed Championship Bracket qualification by 27 pins with a 3,050 15-game Baker Rotation score and eventually placed sixth amid the consolation bracket.

Charles City’s girls — consisting of Girkin, Hadley, Hesse, Bahe, junior Isabell Crawford and freshman Miyah Stevenson — bounced back from an eighth-place preliminary total (2,417) with a consolation match win before also placing sixth.

In the Class 1A boys team championship match, Maquoketa defeated Gilbert 3.5 games to 1.5 — wins equal 1 point; ties are 0.5 point for each team in the first-to-three head-to-head matches.

In the Class 1A girls team championship match, Camanche defeated Louisa-Muscatine 3 games to 1.

Class 1A State
Team Bowling Championships

Feb. 20

AT CADILLAC LANES

Boys Tournament

15-Game Preliminary
Baker Rotation Total

1. Maquoketa 3376, 2. Gilbert 3267, 3. St. Albert 3199, 4. Camanche 3077, 5. Charles City 3050, 6. Central DeWitt 3043, 7. Clarke 2900, 8. Clarinda 2879.

BEST-OF-FIVE
CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH

Maquoketa d. Gilbert 3.5-1.5

Championship Semis

Maquoketa d. Camanche 3-2

Gilber d. St. Albert 3-1

Consolation Semis

Charles City d. Clarinda 3-1

Clark d. Central DeWitt 3-2

Third-Place Match

St. Albert d. Camanche 3-2

Fifth-Place Match

Clark d. Charles City 3.5-0.5

Seventh-Place Match

Central DeWitt d. Clarinda 3-2

Girls Tournament

15-Game Preliminary
Baker Rotation Total

1. Camanche 3249, 2. Louisa-Muscatine 3047, 3. Clarinda 2939, 4. Vinton-Shellsburg 2765, 5. West Delaware 2564, 6. St. Albert 2494, 7. Shenandoah 2488, 8. Charles City 2471.

BEST-OF-FIVE
CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH

Camanche d. Louisa-Muscatine 3-2

Championship Semis

Camanche d. Vinton-Shellsburg 3-2

Louisa-Muscatine d. Clarinda 3-2

Consolation Semis

Charles City d. West Delaware 3-2

St. Albert d. Shenandoah 3-2

Fifth-Place Match

Shenandoah d. Charles City 3-1

Seventh-Place Match

St. Albert d. West Delaware 3-1

Class 1A State Individual
Bowling Championships

Feb. 21

AT CADILLAC LANES

Boys Tournament

Top Eight Three-Game
Series Qualifiers

1. Rylan Edwards (Central DeWitt) 740, 2. Malcolm Clark (Monticello) 731, 3. Jack Mastbergen (Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn) 727, 4. Cole Pekny (St. Albert) 726, 5. Coal Myers (Gilbert) 720, 6. Noah White (Charles City) 708, 7. Tristen Carter (Knoxville) 699, 8. Vann Lessig (Vinton-Shellsburg) 687.

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

Lessig d. White 262-212

Quarterfinals

Lessig d. Edwards 244-194

Pekny d. Myers 226-203

White d. Mastbergen 213-162

Clark d. Carter 221-189

Semifinals

Lessig d. Pekny 223-207

White d. Clark 204-172

Third-Place Game

Clark d. Pekny 199-168

Girls Tournament

Top Eight Three-Game
Series Qualifiers

1. Kloey Tebbe (Camanche) 675, 2. Olivia Gardner (St. Albert) 632, 3. Kennady Bigwood (Camanche) 616, 4. Georgie Bohent (St. Albert) 603, 5. Claire Girkin (Charles City) 599, 6. Rylee Pulliam (Clarinda) 598, 7. Kylee Kirchner (Vinton-Shellsburg) 595, 8. Molly Bramble (Louisa-Muscatine) 587.

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

Kirchner d. Bramble 219-204

Quarterfinals

Bramble d. Tebbe 184-164

Bohnet d. Gherkin 252-236

Kirchner d. Gardner 184-182

Pulliam d. Bigwood 193-174

Semifinals

Bramble d. Bohnet 214-165

Kirchner d. Pulliam 244-235

Third-Place Game

Pulliam d. Bohnet 257-137

CHARLES CITY STATE QUALIFIERS — Payton Hadley 575, Darian Hesse 470, Kinleigh Bahe 445