Right there in the fight

Competing at the highest level for the first time in school history, Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn made its mark at the 1A boys' state bowling tournament on Feb. 20 in Waterloo.

Senior Marcus Aaron, sophomores Jack Mastbergen, Dawson Niichel and Skyler Shaffer, and freshmen Caleb Aaron and Riley Russell had a chance to make history for the first-year program as they took on Louisa-Muscatine in the bracket round.

"We had quite an experience at the state bowling tournament as we had a very good opportunity to take out the top-seeded team," said Hawk coach Julia Meyer. "The boys bowled and tried their best to win. They were really clicking and had momentum after our first win and also the second."

The tournament began with the eight teams bowling 15 Baker games, with total pins determining the bracketing. Team totals were Louisa-Muscatine 3,218, Maquoketa 3,184, Council Bluffs St. Albert 3,122, Vinton-Shellsburg 3,090, West Delaware 2,990, Camanche 2,951, Clarinda 2,943 and H-M-S 2,925.

The Hawks' Baker game scores were 195, 142, 159, 256, 164, 220, 213, 181, 198, 200, 192, 168, 225, 215 and 197. As the eighth seed, H-M-S was matched against No. 1 Louisa-Muscatine in the quarterfinals. The Hawks won two of the first three games before dropping the final two. Results were (H-M-S first) 203-211, 182-150, 235-226, 264-204 and 215-169. H-M-S was the only team to take their opponent to the fifth game in the quarterfinal round.

"I am so proud of the boys and each of their efforts. They now have the taste of what they want to do again, because they know they were right there in the fight with the best teams and players in the state," Meyer said.

H-M-S will have to replace seniors Aaron and Drew Prins next year, but the stage is set for the bowling program to have more success in the future.

"Even though we did not advance to the semifinals, we surprised a lot of people with our bowling, as a new school in the sport, then qualifying for the state tournament and almost taking out the top-seeded team. This was a big learning experience and we will use that as seed for next year's season," Meyer noted.

Other quarterfinal results were Vinton-Shellsburg over West Delaware, 3-0; St. Albert over Camanche, 3-0; and Maquoketa over Clarinda, 3-1. In the semifinals, Vinton-Shellsburg edged Louisa-Muscatine and Maquoketa topped St. Albert, 3-2.

Maquoketa then defeated Vinton-Shellsburg, 3-2, to win the 1A state title and St. Albert won 3-2 over Louisa-Muscatine in consolation play.

• Competes in individual tournament

H-M-S sophomore Jack Mastbergen was among the 32 qualifiers to compete in the Class 1A individual tournament on Feb. 21 at Maple Lanes in Waterloo.

Competitors bowled three individual games, with the Top 8 qualifiers advancing to bowl in bracket play. Mastbergen rolled games of 142 and 213, and then came close to rolling a perfect game, finishing with a 278. His 633 series left him in a tie for 11th place out of 32 qualifiers. His 278 was the second-highest game bowled in pre-bracket play.

Adam Denny, of St. Albert, was the individual champion, and teammate Cole Pekny finished second. Ashton Giza, of Clarke, won the third-place match.