April 8, 2022 at 6:45 a.m.
Team review: Rhinelander club bowling
Hodag keglers hold their own in tough D1 field
Team review: Rhinelander club bowling
Rhinelander went 7-3 overall in dual meets, had a good showing at home in District 9 singles action and finished the season with an individual state semifinalist in senior Kody Litzen.
Here are five storylines from the recently completed season.
D1 buzzsaw
Adding Tomahawk to the co-op, with the addition of sophomore Noah Pearson, bumped Rhinelander up into Division 1, based on the combined enrollment of the schools in the program.
Not that Division 2 was easy, as the Hodags found out last year when they just missed out on a team state berth, but Division 1 saw the team competing against Wisconsin Valley Conference programs such as Wausau, D.C. Everest, Stevens Point, Marshfield and Wisconsin Rapids.
The Hodags held their own against the big schools, going 7-3 but, ultimately, did not have quite enough firepower to hang with D.C. Everest and Stevens Point. Rhinelander fell to both early in the season. With only two Division 1 teams from District 9 advancing to the state tournament, Rhinelander had to play catchup most of the way.
A loss 7-2 loss to D.C. Everest Jan. 31 dropped Rhinelander to 5-3 on the season and all but mathematically eliminated the Hodags from state competition. The Hodags didn't bowl poorly that match, averaging 184.7 pins per game, but ran into an buzzsaw as the Evergreens broke 200 on eight occasions and averaged 211.7 pins per game Sunday - the highest for any team in any single match in District 9 competition this season.
"When teams are stringing them strikes, spares don't cut it them. You've got to string (strikes) with them," Hodag co-coach Mike Bourcier said. "You could just see it when they're bowling in their home house. I'm sure they've been practicing on this pattern. They bowled well. It's not that our kids bowled horrible. Both teams bowled fairly well. It's just they were on. I can't even say lucky hits or anything. They were throwing good balls."
Finishing strong
Rhinelander did get a last laugh on Stevens Point, edging the Panthers 5-4 in the regular season finale Feb. 13. The team parlayed that momentum into the postseason. In the D9 singles tournament Rhinelander had three division champions and five bowlers take home part of the $5,000 scholarship fund that was set up by the district for the event. That included Kody Litzen, who was the overall champion of the three-day tournament, averaging more than 250 pins per game in his four-game series. Alex Hall won the C Division while Johanna Dellenbach was tops in the D Division.
"It was a great showing by everyone," Bourcier said. "We won three of the six divisions, which is great. It helps having it here, but it just goes to show how these kids have been practicing and working hard at it. It's a good, strong building, going into next year seeing all of this."
Litzen turned in a solid performance at the WiHSBC state tournament, where he finished 12th in a field of 103 bowlers.
He rolled a 676 series in the qualifying round. That was good enough for tied for 18th in the field and a spot in the semifinals as the top 26 made it to the second round. Litzen then rolled a 638 series in the semifinals to move up six spots in the standings. He finished 78 pins outside of the top five, which qualified for the stepladder finals.
"I'm happy the way I finished. Top 12 in the state, you can't say much better than that," he said. "I felt like I could have done better, but I guess it's just the way the cookie crumbles. I felt I bowled good. I had a few struggling games, as you can tell (a couple) 180s, but I guess I felt in the game for the whole thing. I had fun doing it. That's what I took away from it."
Litzen and fellow senior Bella Walkowski added one more feather in their caps as they represented District 9 in the WiHSBC All-Star Team Challenge. District 9 swept the boys' and girls' titles at the event.
Statbook
Litzen had a strong season for the Hodags, finishing fifth overall in the WiHSBC Division 9 boys' standings with an 87.574 fill percentage. That mark was good enough for advance him to both the WiHSBC state tournament and earn him a spot on the D9 All-Star Team.
Walkowski narrowly missed joining Litzen at state, as she finished sixth in the girls' standings with a 74.691 fill percentage. Only the top four girls in D9 advanced to state. While the top five in the standings earned spots on the All-Star team, Walkowski made the squad as a alternate when one of the top five bowlers was unable to attend.
Junior Cody Bednarz, an individual state qualifier in 2021, struggled to match his form from his sophomore season and finished well outside state contention with a 77.78 fill percentage. Pearson filled 73.91% of his frames. Hall led the Hodags' three freshmen with a 67.89 fill percentage, Payton McCue was at 59.740% and Dellenbach was at 59.036%.
As a team, Rhinelander averaged 182.16 pins per game and filled 74.0% of its frames. Both of those marks were third-best in Division 1 and eighth-best among all teams in District 9.
Middle school
On the middle school side Rhinelander went 1-8 on the season with a young squad, averaging 114.2 pins per game and filling 39.12% of their frames. Their lone win came in the eighth week of the season, sweeping Antigo, 9-0.
"To go 9-0 was pretty awesome, to win their first match felt good,' Bourcier said. "The kids were relaxed and pumped and going and cheering each other on. Overall, it was a great day for the kids."
Blake Klingen led the squad, filling 68.84% of this frames on the season. Nate Lavender (47.37%), Dominic Cooper (40.91%), Natalie Fore (34.09%), Alyssa Habeck (27.15%) and Aiden Johnson (18.67%) rounded out the squad.
What's next
The Hodags will graduate two of their top three bowlers from this season, but five bowlers, enough for a full varsity squad, will return.
"It's a great team," assistant coach Kevin Litzen said following a season-ending win over Stevens Point. "It's a tough thing, we're going to lose two good seniors, but we're going to gain two freshmen that are coming up along with the team that's already solidified from this year. It's going to be a pretty good team for next year."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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