Davison Girls, Salem Boys Reign in D1
March 3, 2017
By Keith Dunlap
Special for Second Half
STERLING HEIGHTS – In a sport filled with so much unpredictably, the Davison girls bowling team continues to be a model of incredible consistency.
For a sixth straight year, Davison advanced to the championship round of the Division 1 tournament Friday. Once there, the Cardinals improved to 5-1 in those championship matches, earning a 1,368-1,189 win over Oxford at Sterling Lanes to repeat as champions and win their fifth title in six years.
The only blemish was a loss to Macomb Dakota in the 2015 championship match.
“The girls are all dedicated and they know when come into our program, they need to give it their all,” Davison coach Bryan Davis said. “We have a great youth program. You get a couple or three good bowlers every year; it feeds into itself.”
In the boys event, Salem won its second MHSAA title with a 1,285-1,232 win in the championship match over a Hudsonville team that also was seeking the program’s second title.
Salem won it all in 2013, while Hudsonville was the champion in 2004.
“They were strong all season,” Salem coach Kathie Hahn said of her team. “I have four seniors so I was hoping for a good ending to their year. I was a little nervous and then as the (Final) came on, I was more nervous because if they started stringing (strikes), it could’ve been hard. We weren’t really stringing strikes today. But they held in there, they never gave up and were tough all the way. I can’t be more proud of them.”
The Davison girls dominated the entire day, finishing first out of the qualifying block with 3,572 pins and then starting its run to the Final with a 1,237-1,104 victory over Utica in the Quarterfinals.
The Cardinals then knocked off Rockford in the Semifinals by a score of 1,272-1,039.
Oxford finished third out of the qualifying block with 3,079 pins, and started a run to its first-ever Final with a 1,177-1,053 victory over St. Clair Shores Lakeview in the Quarterfinals.
Facing a Macomb Dakota team that knocked off No. 2-seeded Lake Orion in the Quarterfinals, Oxford earned a crack at Davison with a 1,230-1,169 win over Dakota.
Oxford head coach JR Lafnear knew the force his team was up against in Davison, and could only admire the brilliance of the Cardinals in the Final.
“That’s a juggernaut,” Lafnear said. “They are tough to beat, and we would’ve had to have been at the top of our game. We are happy with our performance. Of 100 teams in Division 1, 98 would rather be where we are. We are pretty pumped up about it. I’ve got two sophomores and a junior coming back out of this group, so we are excited about the future.”
Like the Oxford girls, the Salem boys finished third out of the qualifying block and began the elimination round with a 1,293-1,132 win over St. Clair Shores Lakeview in the Quarterfinals.
Salem then beat Grand Haven in the Semifinals, 1,312-1,149.
Hudsonville had all sorts of momentum going into the Final after knocking off the reigning Division 1 champion and No. 1 seed out of the qualifying block Wyandotte Roosevelt in the Semifinals by a score of 1,366-1,227.
But Salem was too much for Hudsonville to overcome.
“The boys showed up today,” Hudsonville coach Paul Bentley said. “They bowled good all day. We just ran into a good team in Salem. They bowled well that match.”
Click for full girls results and full boys results.
PHOTOS: (Top) The Davison girls raise their Division 1 trophy after repeating as champs. (Middle) Salem's boys celebrate the second MHSAA title in program history.
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.