ROLLING ALONG: Eskymo Bowlers Win U.P. Title
MARQUETTE---The Escanaba High School boys bowling team literally rolled to an Upper Peninsula championship Saturday night in Marquette, beating two teams that they had not defeated all season along the way. Escanaba finished first with a team score of 3,885 pins. Westwood took second with 3,543 pins, and Iron Mountain finished third with 3,424. Ishpeming (3,016) was fourth, and Menominee (2,926) was fifth. Marquette finished eighth and Gladstone was ninth. He says he's starting to get back into his bowling-shape, and was the top finisher on Saturday with 570 pins (189-202-179). "I didn't really know how it was going to go this year," Fennell said. "Kind of just winged it. I went there (bowling alley) a lot before the season started, and tried finding my rhythm." "I wasn't really hot at the beginning of the year, very up and down this whole season, but lately, I've been coming along and it's sure good to be back into it." Escanaba's second-top scorer was sophomore Hunter Lancour, who shook off a rough first game to roll a 226 in the second individual game. He finished with 553 pins (154-226-171). "We've had an up-and-down season," Lancour said. "We know we're good enough to compete with the best guys. We've got a very good line-up. We put everything together, had really good confidence going in there, had really electric people around us, and we just got the job done, and bowled really good." The Eskymos celebrated by beating Westwood and Iron Mountain, teams that have been very strong in Upper Peninsula bowling the last several years and had defeated the Eskymos in every match-up they had this season. Until Saturday, that is. "It felt really good," Fennell said. "I felt like our whole team contributed well. It didn't matter who it was, we were shooting well. It felt like, as a team, we had a lot of confidence, and whenever somebody would throw a strike or get a spare, the next man up would do the same thing and it just felt like we were rolling as a team." "They're both really, really good teams, really well-coached," Lancour said. "Really good bowlers on their teams. But we knew we could keep up with them. Early in the year, we lost to Westwood and we were up the whole day and then at the end, we didn't bowl as good as we should've, and we ended up losing that match." "But today, we went in there knowing this was our last chance to beat them. And we just put everything together and it was a great showing from us." "Last year, we ended up taking third as a team and made it down to states, and I missed the cut by eleven pins last year as a freshman," Lancour said. "I really wish I would've made it, but this year, I expect myself to make it as an indivudal and as a team." GIRLS UP FINALS---Escanaba finished third with 2,769 pins. Iron Mountain won the title with 3,038 pins. Ishpeming was second with 2,958. Westwood was fourth (2,680), Marquette took fifth (2,650), and L'Anse finished sixth with 2,317 pins. Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS box above to see photos, and see video interviews with Lancour and Fennell. Also click the AUDIO buttons to hear both kids' radio interviews. |