Hodag boys’ bowlers fall to Marshfield in rolloff

The Rhinelander/Tomahawk boys’ club bowling team thought it had a tie in Wisconsin High School Bowling Club District 9 action Sunday, until a check of the rulebook showed that the Hodags still had more bowling to do. 

The team lost a five-frame rolloff with Marshfield 134-94 after rallying to what it thought was a 4 1/2-4 1/2 tie during rounds 7 and 8 of the D9 dual meet season at Dale’s Weston Lanes.

The Hodags took the final three games of that match to force the draw, or so both teams initially thought. During Rhinelander’s second match against D.C. Everest, which it lost 6-3, it was informed the WiHSBC rulebook stipulated a tiebreaker to settle the dual meet with the Tigers. The tiebreaker took place after both teams concluded their second matches of the day. Marshfield threw five straight strikes to start the rolloff to build a lead it would not relinquish. 

“I’ve never had a tie to really worry about in a match. We’ve had ties in games, but I’ve never actually had an actual match tie that I can remember,” Hodag coach Mike Bourcier said. “Here we thought we tied the match and, come to find out we had to have a five-frame rolloff … I think if we would have done the rolloff right away, knowing we had to do that, I think we would have won the match. Having to do it after the next match, it was like, ‘who cares?’”

The Hodags didn’t have the same momentum in the rolloff as the loss to Everest effectively knocked Rhinelander out of contention for one of the two Division 1 team state qualifying spots up for grabs in District 9. The Hodags fell to 3-5 on the season with two dual meets remaining. 

Ultimately, unlucky splits and missed spares cost the Hodags a chance to beat the Tigers in regulation. Rhinelander had three splits in the first game, including an eight-count by anchor bowler Noah Pearson on his second ball in the 10th, as the teams bowled to a 178-178 tie. After taking the second game 212-138, the Hodags threw three straight splits late in Game 3, losing 168-151. Four opens in the fourth game proved costly in a 192-180 loss. Rhinelander opened the final two frames in the fifth and lost 150-136. Four straight opens, including back-to-back splits in the eighth and ninth frames, led to a 146-134 loss in Game 6. 

“You look at the games were had there, 3-6, it’s like just one simple spare (we win),” Bourcier said. “The single pin misses, the easy misses, those are something, even if you have tough lane conditions, you’ve still got to overcome and make decent shots. They weren’t when that needed to happen. They were overthinking it.”

Bourcier chalked up some of the struggles to a tricky oil pattern that left the team scratching its head much of the day. 

“When you’ve got to be that precise, your release, your throw, everything has to be more on, more exact,” he said. “If it’s off just a little bit, you pay the price. They didn’t have much forgiveness. It was either you threw the ball well and you got your marks or you were off a little bit and paid the price.”

Rheinlander took the final three games 224-179, 199-1711 and 179-132 to force the tiebreaker. 

The Hodags fell behind early in the second match against D.C. Everest as the Evergreens claimed five of the first six games to clinch the dual. The Hodags’ lone win in that span was a 199-189 win in Game 3. 

Pearson, who came into the day with an outside chance of playing himself into an individual qualifying position for state, struggled. He filled 25 of his 36 frames with 15 strikes. The 11 opens dropped him outside of the top 20 in the league standings with a .7778 fill percentage.

“Noah, with 11 opens on the day, it probably shot himself out. He was sitting 16th-18th place, somewhere in that range there,” Bourcier said. “I did hear some other kids struggle some. I’m not saying it’s 100% out, until we see all the stats in before the next meet.”

Keagyn Schoone had the team’s best day, statistically, going 28 of 36 with 20 strikes. Blake Klingen was 27 of 36 with 13 strikes. 

“Keagyn, overall he did really well for the day. He threw a lot of strikes. He had some splits in there. You take them out and he had only two missed ones on his six opens there. He bowled well,” Bourcier said. “Blake had a decent first match, only four opens had a bunch of strikes. He started out great, got a little funky in the middle there and we got him back dialed down to what he needed to do and he finished out great.”

Dominic Hakala was 24 of 36 with 13 strikes. Jackson Fuss was 19 of 36 with eight strikes. 

With team and individual state qualification likely out the window, Bourcier said there will be little pressure on the team during its final two regular season matches of the year, which will take place Feb. 11 at 5-Star Lanes in Plover. 

“We’ve got to do it for ourselves and try to finish out the season with a .500 record … We can go 5-5. That’s our goal to shoot for,” he said.

Hodag girls drop both matches

The Rhinelander/Elcho girls’ high school squad fell in both of its matches on Sunday, falling to Antigo 8-1 and Amherst/Stevens Point 7-2. 

Rhinelander’s lone win against the Robins was a 155-117 win in Game 3. The team had a couple of other close calls, dropping Game 2 134-129, Game 4 152-148 and Game 7 139-124. 

The Hodags’ wins against Amherst came back-to-back, taking Game 4 143-141 and Game 5 140-117. 

Rhinelander filled 41.1% of its frames in both of its matches and was 28 of 66 on the day converting non-split one- or two-pin spare chances.

“Spare shooting definitely needs work,” Hodag girls’ coach Cory Dellenbach said. “We missed a lot of easy one and two pin pickups in both matches that probably would have helped us win a couple more games and even a match. We’ve got to get better at those.”

Johanna Dellenbach filled 25 of her 36 frames on the day, dropping her year-long fill percentage down slightly to .7090. Despite that, she had moved from seventh to fifth in the D9 girls’ standings, based on data entered into the league’s database as of Wednesday afternoon.  

Last year, the top four girls in D9 qualified for individual state. This year’s cutline had not been announced as of press time, but a top-five finish in the league would qualify Dellenbach for the WiHSBC All-Star Team Challenge in March.

Aubrey Doppke was 17 of 30 on the day with three strikes, Alyssa Habeck went 16 of 34 with seven strikes, Katrina Roof was 8 of 26 with four strikes, Addison Habeck was 6 of 30 with three strikes and Emily Koniar was 2 of 24 with a strike. 

“Katrina has been putting in some extra time and making some nice improvements in her game,” coach Dellenbach noted. “She just needs to get a little bit more consistent on hitting the pocket.”

The Hodag girls (0-8) will also close out District 9 regular season competition Feb. 11 in Plover. 

“I’d really like to see the girls stay hyped up, stay positive in the next dual meet and pull out at least one match win this season,” coach Dellenbach noted. “They’ve been working hard at it and deserve to get that W.”

Middler schoolers fall to Merrill

Though the Rhinelander finished with only 23 fewer pins than Merrill 1 on the day, a number of close game losses resulted in a 7-2 defeat to the Bluejays in WiMSBC play on Sunday. 

Rhinelander took the third game 169-126 and the fourth 121-107 to tie the match at two apiece, but Merrill ran the table from there — with four of the five wins coming by fewer than 20 pins. 

“We were close in several of the others and should have won, but the kids weren’t entirely focused on bowling today and it was frustrating to see,” coach Dellenbach noted. “They were very capable of pulling this one off.”

Eli Miller led the way, going 10 of 14 on the day with six strikes, Natalie Dellenbach was 8 of 18 with three strikes, Logan Campbell was 7 of 16 with three strikes. Silas Johnson, Brighton Walkowski and Charlotte Preuss all went 3 of 14 on the day. 

The Hodags (1-3) will be back in action Feb. 11 in Plover.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].