Sturgis boys bowl to another conference title
The Sturgis boys and Three Rivers girls finished as Wolverine Conference champs for the season.
The Trojan boys finished with 21 points, which allowed them to finish one spot ahead of Three Rivers (20 points) for the season. Three Rivers officially won the conference tournament last week, but came up just one point short of the Trojans for the entire season. The victory for Sturgis was their sixth conference title in 10 seasons.
The Wildcats beat Sturgis 870 - 858 in five baker games to secure first place.
For the girls, Three Rivers finished with 19 points to clinch first place. The Lady Wildcats won the conference tournament as well, beating Sturgis 840 - 696 in the finals. Three Rivers piled up 19 total points for the season, Sturgis came in second with 16 points.
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Otsego's Chuck Kinnane was voted as coach of the year for the boys, Sara Doublestein of Plainwell was voted as coach of the year for the girls.
Jayna Larson of Three Rivers finished with the high game for the season at 259. She also had the high series for the season at 459. Kortnie Matz was the highest Sturgis girl with a 223 on the season (fourth best) with a 374 series as well (fifth best).
The Lady Wildcats established a new baker game season average of 170.07 pins, which broke the previous conference record set nearly a decade ago. Sturgis finished with a series set record of 381 earlier this year, breaking the previous record set by Three Rivers earlier this year as well. Prior to that, the record was set in 2015.
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First Team All-Conference honors for the girls, in order, were: Jayna Larson (Three Rivers), Taylor Mohney (Three Rivers), Kortnie Matz (Sturgis), Kami Kimes (Sturgis), Carley Krauss (Three Rivers), Alicyn Klok (Otsego), Lydia Boland (Sturgis) and Laighnee Roll-Pike (Three Rivers).
First Team All-Conference honors for the boys, in order, were: Lucan Hoercher (Three Rivers), Lane Malone (Sturgis), Devin Svoboda (Three Rivers), Andrew Matz (Sturgis), Austin Junde (Vicksburg), Nick Allen (Three Rivers), Brayden O'Dell (Vicksburg) and Shawn Atkins (Niles).
On Saturday, the Trojan bowling teams competed at the Flint Metro Conference Regional Tune Up event.
The boys finished second, falling to Frankenmuth in the finals 344 - 318. To get there, Sturgis beat top-seeded and defending state champion Flint Kearsley 379 -377 and then Flint Powers Catholic 381 - 355.
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In qualifying, Sturgis was led by Andrew Matz with games of 194 and 181 (375), Caleb Henson-Bohlen with games of 174 and 193 (367) and Josh Groff (317 series).
The girls finished third, falling to top-ranked Flint Kearsley 404 -359 in the semifinals. The Trojans beat defending state champions of Division 3 Flint Powers Catholic 361 - 355 in the opening round.
The Sturgis bowling teams will compete at regionals at Vicksburg while Three Rivers will compete at the Grand Rapids Catholic Central host site.
Contact Sports Editor Brandon Watson at bwatson@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as twitter, @BwatsonSJ.
This article originally appeared on Sturgis Journal: Sturgis boys win another conference crown
