D4's Best Survive Close Final Matches
March 2, 2013
By Jon Malavolti
Special to Second Half
STERLING HEIGHTS – Vandercook Lake’s Malloree Ambs and Rogers City’s Bailey Budnik outlasted the competition Saturday at Sunnybrook Golf and Bowl to be crowned the MHSAA’s Division 4 bowling girls and boys singles champions, respectively.
Ambs, who defeated Oscoda sophomore Paige Huebel 375-361 in the final, was a champion for the second straight day after her Jayhawks took the girls team title Friday.
Budnik, meanwhile, fended off Jeffery Green of Burton Bentley 336-322 in an all-freshman final on the boys side.
The back-to-back days of bowling certainly didn’t slow Ambs down, yet she wasn’t necessarily planning on lasting so long. Her freshman year she advanced to the round of 16, and then on to the quarterfinals her sophomore season. So this year she said she had simply hoped to make the semifinals.
“But I got through that and made it to the finals,” she noted. “It means a lot."
Huebel exceeded her own expectations as well.
“I think it’s very awesome,” she said of reaching the final. “I didn’t even come here expecting that, but I’m really happy.”
Back on the boys side, the freshmen Finals competitors weren’t exactly sure what to expect. But that didn’t stop them from excelling.
“I’m really excited,” Budnik said. “It’s a really great honor. I must have just got lucky or something; I don’t know. The lane switching was hard to get at first, then just keeping myself from not cracking under the pressure and just taking it one stop at a time and clearing my mind.”
Green was grateful for his success, and anxious to apply the lessons learned on the day toward the future – and perhaps another run at an MHSAA title.
“It is very exciting, but it was very nerve-wracking also,” he said.
The exciting competitive drama for the day wasn’t limited to the final round.
Qualifying on the boys side was especially close. Even after six games apiece, six bowlers just missed moving on to the knockout stages by fewer than eight pins. And there was a tie for the 16th and final spot in qualifying, meaning Madison Heights Bishop Foley sophomore Michael Maruszczak and Muskegon Western Michigan Christian senior Austin Sandin would compete in a tie-breaker game. Maruszczak eventually emerged victorious.
The girls competition was tight as well, featuring a roll-off on additional ninth and 10th frames in the quarterfinals between Unionville-Sebewaing senior Kaitlin Gunsell and Vandercook Lake junior Jessica Bunch. Gunsell rolled three straight strikes to best Bunch 60-47 and advance to the semifinals, where she fell to Ambs.
Ambs becomes the first girls bowler to win singles and team championships in the same season since 2010 when Kara Richard and Tecumseh completed the achievement in Division 2.
It certainly helps to practice against some of the best competition in the state, as a pair of Ambs’ team title-winning teammates also advanced as far as the singles quarterfinals Saturday – Bunch and senior Becky Cecil.
“It feels pretty good to know that all the hard work we do during practices and all the coaching that we have helps,” Ambs said. “It pushes us a lot.”
Click for full girls results and full boys results.
PHOTOS: (Top) Vandercook Lake's Malloree Ambs prepares to roll during Saturday's Individual Finals. (Middle) Rogers City's Bailey Budnik finished as boys champion Saturday at Sterling Heights. (Click to see more at HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
Down to Last Game, Kearsley Boys Storm Back to Complete Finals 3-Peat
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
February 28, 2025
WATERFORD — The best part for Flint Kearsley bowling coach Bart Rutledge was that he didn’t really have to say a word.
After Kearsley fell behind New Boston Huron 2-1 in the best-of-five Baker game championship match for the Division 2 title, Rutledge quickly huddled his boys team.
Just as quickly, he left the huddle.
There really was no inspirational speech needed for a group of bowlers who had been part of Kearsley’s team that won the last two Division 2 Finals, including last year when the Hornets rallied from an 0-2 deficit.
“They took ownership of it,” Rutledge said of his bowlers. “I told them it’s not over, and they took it from there. They had their own huddle and told each other what they needed to say.”
Whatever was said certainly worked, as Kearsley stormed back to take the final two games (249-226 and 186-166) to make history.
For the first time, the Kearsley boys team had won its third-straight Finals title. Pulling off that feat left Rutledge and his bowlers in tears as they hugged each other in celebration.
Junior anchor bowler Jameson Vanier shed way more tears over this team title than he did last year when he won the individual championship.
“It feels nice to finally have the guys out there on the same platform as the girls,” said Vanier, referring to the girls program that entered this weekend having won nine of the last 11 Division 2 championships.
After Kearsley won the first game 219-204, New Boston Huron rolled to a 248-168 win in the second and then took the third game, 217-203.
The fifth game was close until Kearsley started to separate after Huron failed to get a mark in the sixth, seventh and eighth frames.
“Our spare shooting has been our downfall, and it came back to bite us,” New Boston Huron coach Larry Collins said. “The spares that were missed were by underclassmen, so they’ll learn from this. It stings, but they’ll get better.”
Eventually, Vanier stepped up in the 10th frame. All he needed was a mark to sew up the title.
He delivered a strike and then erupted in celebration along with his teammates and Kearsley supporters.
Vanier said he actually felt more pressure during that moment than at any time during his run to the singles title last year.
“It was 100 percent more,” he said. “Last year, I was just having fun. This year, it came down to the last shot, and I told myself that this was the exact place I want to be.”
Kearsley was the No. 2 seed out of the qualifying block and posted a five-game win over Madison Heights Lamphere in the quarterfinals, winning the fifth game 198-191.
Kearsley then recorded a three-game sweep of Three Rivers to set up the championship match with Huron, which was the top seed out of qualifying.
Rutledge said through it all, he didn’t sense his squad felt any pressure trying to go for its historic three-peat. Not even seeing the Hornets girls fall in the semifinal round caused Kearsley to lose focus on its mission.
“I never doubted it from the start,” Rutledge said.
New Boston Huron earned a four-game win over league rival Carleton Airport in the quarterfinals before recording a three-game sweep of Sparta in the semifinals.