Rhinelander bowlers split again in D9 play

The Rhinelander Area Youth Bowling Club’s varsity bowling team split pair of matches on Sunday in a District 9 dual meet at Dale’s Weston Lanes to move to 4-4 on the season.

The Hodags opened with a tough one right away facing off against Amherst and fell 7-2 to the Falcons. The Hodags won the first game 161-159 and the seventh game 194-188.

In the second match of the day, Rhinelander held off Waupaca 6-3. Rhinelander dropped the first game (127-168) and then came back to win the next three (180-121, 178-151, 170-149) before losing the next two (139-176 and 127-147). With the match tied at 3, Rhinelander took the next three games (158-141, 187-158 and 180-140) for the victory. 

Dominic Hakala finished the day filling 29 of 36 frames with 17 strikes for the Hodags while fellow senior Blake Klingen was 29 of 36 with 15 strikes. Freshman Eli Miller was 27 of 34 with 11 strikes, Jackson Fuss was 15 of 28 with six strikes, Leander Sprecksel was 10 of 26 with five strikes, while Brighton Walkowski was 9 of 20 with five strikes.

“Amherst is the top team this year and it showed being consistent,” coach Mike Bourcier said. “When you don’t make your spares and don’t hit your mark with consistency it’s hard to beat a team especially when we did have opportunities. 

“(Against Waupaca) I told them they need to win two of the (final) three to win the match, so get it together and they did. Dom came out rolling the best balls he did all day and the rest started picking their spares up.”

Junior varsity

The Rhinelander/Three Lakes/Elcho/Phelps junior varsity team got back to winning as they won both matchups on Sunday at Dale’s to improve to 7-1 on the season, sitting just behind a still undefeated DC Everest JV team.

Rhinelander defeated the co-op team of Marawood — a mix of Marathon county bowlers — by a score of 8-1, dropping just the fifth game 179-154.

Rhinelander had three games in the 190s — shooting exactly 190 in the first two games and then a 199 in the sixth. 

“The kids stayed focused and made some great spares to fill frames,” coach Kevin Litzen said. “Spare shooting was a lot better this week.”

Rhinelander moved onto defeat Wittenberg in the second match of the day, 8-1, dropping just the second game, 152-129. 

Oren Alsager led the team, going 27 of 36 with 13 strikes, while Alyssa Habeck was 23 of 36 with eight strikes. Oliver Doppke wrapped up 25 of 36 with eight strikes, Charlie Duquaine was 22 of 36 with 11 strikes, and Silas Johnson finished 18 of 36 with six strikes. 

Middle school

The Rhinelander Middle School team earned its first win of the season on Sunday, defeating SPASH at Dale’s Weston Lanes, 6-1. 

“I was really impressed with the team. We worked hard the last two weeks on mark hitting and it showed on Sunday,” said coach Cory Dellenbach. “We had three bowlers shoot 64 percent or better fill percentage and that is great for our team.” 

Rhinelander jumped out strong winning the first two games 133-96 and 139-101 before dropping the third in a close 145-147 tilt. Rhinelander didn’t let that down and they took the rest of the games (143-126, 140-113, 127-108 and 117-116).

Charlotte Preuss and Natalie Dellenbach each led the Hodags. Preuss was 12 of 14 with seven strikes, while Dellenbach was 12 of 14 with three strikes. Fellow eighth grader Xane Kallio went 9 of 14 with four strikes. Haylee Anderson wrapped up 4 of 14 and Maggie Campbell was 2 of 14 with a strike.

The middle schoolers moved to 1-2-1 on the season.

Up next

All three teams will be back in action on Feb. 1 at Dale’s Weston Lanes for the final dual matches of the year for the high school teams. The middle school season goes a bit longer with a match in March and their final one in April.