March 22, 2023 at 8:16 a.m.
Middle School bowlers close season with a win
The Hodags finished with one of their best showings of the season, averaging 138.8 pins per game while filling exactly 50% of their frames on the day.
"The kids were excited to get all nine wins today and they deserved it," coach Cory Dellenbach said. "It was awesome coaching this year and I am excited to see how they grow over the offseason."
The team's three eighth graders bowled all 18 frames on Sunday. Nate Lavender and Alyssa Habeck each went 10 for 18 on the day. Lavender had five strikes and Habeck had two. Aubree Doppke finished 8 of 18 with a pair of strikes.
"It was a good showing from all of our kids. The eighth graders bowled all 18 frames with Nathan leading the team with 5 strikes, 5 spares and 8 opens. He was spot on today and it was great to see," coach Dellenbach said. "Both Alyssa and Aubree did very well with their spare conversions. They struggled knocking down stakes despite hitting the pocket, but didn't let that get them down."
Natalie Dellenbach was 8 of 14 on the day with four strikes, Eli Miller was 6 for 12 with three strikes and Aiden Johnson was 3 of 10 with a strike.
"Natalie has done very well this year being the youngest on the team fit in well with all of them," coach Dellenbach said.
Rhinelander won most of the games comfortably against an Antigo team that averaged 109.1 pins per game on the day. The closest call was in Game 6 when Doppke converted a single-pin spare in the 10th frame and then picked up a seven-count on her bonus ball to eke out a 124-122 win. The Hodags had a high score of 155 in both Game 1 (155-110) and Game 7 (155-83).
The Hodags won three of their final four matches and finished 3-5 overall in District 9 competition. With half of the team moving up to the high school program, coach Dellenbach said he's already on the lookout for potential players to fill the voids next year.
"This was Antigo's team made up of fourth graders. A good reminder that we can build a strong program starting with fourth and fifth graders if anyone is interested in joining next year," he said.
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