Hodag bowlers take second in Winter Classic

A Rhinelander/Three Lakes co-ed bowling team took part in the annual Weston Winter Classic bowling tournament at Dale’s Weston Lanes on Sunday. The Hodags finished second in the boys/co-ed division of the non-conference tournament, falling to Antigo in the championship match.

The team was made up of varsity boys’ bowlers Alex Hall, Dominic Hakala, Blake Klingen and Oren Alsager. The fifth bowler was varsity girls’ bowler Johanna Dellenbach.

Rhinelander finished regular bracket play undefeated — including a win over the top-seeded Red Robins — and would have to wait about an hour to see who it would face in the championship bracket. The opposing team would have to beat Rhinelander twice to win, while Rhinelander just needed one series win.

Antigo defeated Amherst in the fourth round to advance to the championship where the rivals met.

Rhinelander came out strong in the first game, defeating Antigo 200-189 starting with four straight strikes. Antigo bounced back in a big way in the second 244-160 to take a large lead. Rhinelander couldn’t muster enough in the third game, 195-181 to give Antigo the 614-555 win in the first series, forcing a second series with the two teams.

Antigo came out firing in the second series rolling games of 220, 217 and 249, while Rhinelander was held to 162, 155 and 192, giving the Red Robins the 686-509 series and the tournament championship.

“The kids bowled very well all day,” said coach Cory Dellenbach, who assisted head coach Kevin Litzen on Sunday. “They each went through their little ups and downs, but they all fought back from them and I think they surprised themselves with how well they did at this tournament.”

The tournament started with bowlers throwing four individual games during qualifying rounds. Rhinelander jumped out to a big early lead scoring 1,046 pins in the first game to put them in first. Second was Bay Port with 991 pins. 

Rhinelander slipped down to second after the second game scoring 913 pins, while Antigo boys moved to first place. The Hodags stayed in second after the third game, despite a rough outing with 879 pins. 

A little bounce back in the fourth game kept Rhinelander in qualifying as the Hodags rolled a 904 to finish qualifying with the fourth seed with 3,742 pins (averaging 187.10). Antigo took the first seed with 3,970 pins, while D.C. Everest was second with 3,810 and third went to Bay Port with 3,808.

Rounding out the qualifying boys teams were SPASH with No. 5 (3,689), Wagner’s with the sixth (3,582), Amherst with the seventh (3,484) and Beaver Dam with the eighth (3,336). Being eliminated from bracket play were New London (3,237), Wausau (3,139) and Rice Lake (3,075). 

Klingen earned a spot on the all tournament team finishing fifth among 64 boys with an 822 series (225, 184, 197, 240). Alsager, a sophomore, took 10th overall with an 803 (192, 234, 220, 157), while Hall was 19th (229, 173, 150, 191) and Hakala was 21st (229, 151, 177, 169). On the girls’ side, Dellenbach took 18th out of 48 girls with a 624 series (171, 171, 135, 147).

In bracket play, the qualifying teams faced each other in three baker games with the winner being the team with the most pin count. The No. 4 seeded Rhinelander team faced No. 5 seeded SPASH in the first round with Rhinelander claiming the 555-535 win with games of 182, 210 and 163. SPASH had games of 190, 202 and 143.

In the second round, the Hodags faced No. 1 seed rival Antigo. Rhinelander came out strong in the first game to win 182-169. Antigo fought back to take the second 195-175 to give the Red Robins the 364-360 edge heading into the final game of the series. Rhinelander had a nearly all-clean game in the final game to win 213-196 and take the 573-560 series win.

In the third round, Rhinelander rolled past No. 7 seed Amherst 500-472 with games of 200, 121 and 179. Amherst had games of 141, 170, 161. 

Hall, Johanna Dellenbach and Hakala each filled 80% (24 of 30) of their frames during the baker portion of tournament. Hall and Dellenbach each had 12 strikes while Hakala had eight strikes. Alsager went 23 of 30 with 12 strikes and Klingen was 21 of 30 with 10 strikes. 

The Hodags will jump back into Wisconsin High School Bowling Club District 9 play Jan. 12 in Weston. The Rhinelander/Three Lakes boys (2-4) will face Marathon and bowl against the bye while the Rhinelander/Elcho girls (1-5) will have rematches with Antigo and Merrill/Tomahawk.