1st-Time Finalists Become 1st-Time Champs in D4

By Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com

March 27, 2021

CANTON – Both Burr Oak junior Ethan Lindsay and Gobles sophomore Morgan Brunner obviously hope they qualify for the Division 4 Bowling Finals again during their high school careers.

But if they do, it is certainly going to be hard to top their respective first appearances. 

Both not only competed in their first Finals, but they left Super Bowl in Canton with the titles as individual singles champions for 2021.

Lindsay earned his title by beating Stephen Kangas of Ishpeming Westwood in the final, 509-422.

Lindsay all but clinched his championship by bowling a 280 in the first game, a total he wasn’t sure afterwards was a season high or not.

Kangas bowled a 230, but still found himself down 50 pins. 

“It was extremely nerve-wracking,” Lindsay said. ‘I would sing songs in my head to distract me from bowling. Anything to take my mind off my opponent and what he was bowling and what I was bowling.” 

It was certainly hard for anyone who watched Lindsay’s brilliant day to want to look away from his bowling. 

Seeded ninth out of the qualifying block, Lindsay earned a 432-347 win over Aiden Briguglio of Kimball Landmark Academy in the round of 16 before beating Jesse Pancio of Baldwin in a quarterfinal by just two pins, 380-378.

Lindsay then beat Riley Vernon of Ithaca in a semifinal, 355-337, before saving his best pair of games for the final. 

At the end, Lindsay was simply thinking about his hometown and the fact he brought a championship back to it.

“It means a lot, especially for my town,” Lindsay said. “We’re a small town in Burr Oak. We’ve got like 300 kids in our school. It’s great to bring back this big trophy to my small town.”

Also bringing back a title to her small town was Brunner, who defeated Ella Wendel of Traverse City Christian in a close championship match.

Brunner prevailed 362-354, knowing she had the title when Wendel wasn’t able to bowl a strike on her first ball of the 10th frame in the second game. 

“I was excited,” Brunner said of her mindset coming into her first state tournament. “I’ve been bowling pretty good recently. I just tried to stay positive.”

Brunner was the No. 3 seed out of the qualifying block, and started off by beating Chloe Crick of Maple City Glen Lake in the round of 16, 396-317. 

Brunner then beat Arielle Oakley of Vandercook Lake in the quarterfinals, 404-292, and 2020 champ Kassidy Alexander of Hanover-Horton in the semifinals, 376-327, to set up the championship match with Wendel, who was the No. 1 seed out of the qualifying block. 

“I was telling myself to stay calm and make good shots,” Brunner said. “It feels good.” 

In addition to winning the titles in their first Finals appearances, Lindsay and Brunner did it in what was their only day at Super Bowl of the two-day event.

Their respective teams didn’t qualify for the Friday Team Finals, but it obviously didn’t take Lindsay or Brunner long to get used to the lanes and environment. 

Click for full singles scores. 

Gift of Bowling Keeps Giving as Eisenhower's Harnden Pursues Championship Repeat

By Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com

January 30, 2025

Birthday parties usually feature the best gifts for the person celebrating the birthday. But in this case, the best gift might have ended up going to one of the party’s attendees. 

Greater DetroitBack when he was in fifth grade, current Utica Eisenhower senior bowler Dylan Harnden was invited to a birthday party at Shelby Lanes in Shelby Township by friend and current Eisenhower bowling teammate Kingston Corpuz.

That day, they celebrated Corpuz – and Harnden received the gift of being introduced to bowling. 

“That was his first time bowling, and he basically got the bug that he wanted to bowl,” he said Dylan’s father and current Eisenhower coach Mark Harnden. “From that point forward, he just kind of wanted to get better and better.”

The last couple of years, it can be argued that there’s been no better high schooler in the state.

Last year as a junior, Harnden captured the Division 1 Singles Finals title after also winning his Regional. Naturally, he was named to the all-state Dream Team by the Michigan High School Interscholastic Bowling Coaches Association.

This season, Harnden completed a unique career trifecta by winning the individual title at the Macomb County championship. 

“I can say that I’ve won that tournament along with other great Macomb bowlers who have won that tournament,” he said. “It was great to see myself winning it.”

In addition, Harnden is sporting a 222 average — one pin below his average last year — and has scholarship offers in tow from two prestigious college bowling programs, St. Ambrose University in Iowa and Trine University in Indiana. 

Not bad for someone who didn’t know anything about the sport until that birthday party invite roughly seven years ago.

“It only took me maybe about a half year to a year to get the hang of everything and get really good,” Harnden said. “It was interesting at first.”

In addition to winning the state title last season, Harnden as a sophomore in 2023 finished first out of the qualifying block at the Division 1 Final but ended up falling to eventual champion Brendan Riley of Waterford Mott in the quarterfinal round. 

This year, Harnden’s big objective has been continuing to master mental aspects of the game. 

“A lot of things this year compared to last year is the same stuff, except for trying to expand my knowledge,” he said. “Knowing how to transition better, knowing what balls to go to and trying to hit different shots. Just expanding knowledge mainly from last year to this year just so if I encounter new scenarios, I can use it better.”

Mark Harnden said Dylan when he was younger tried a one-handed bowling style, but quickly discovered that going with the two-handed style was a better fit for him.

“It allowed him to bowl with a heavier bowling ball,” he said. “As you know, heavier balls don’t tend to deflect off the pins.”

This year, not only could Dylan Harnden be a contender to win another Singles Finals title, but he has a decent shot of being part of a team champion thanks to a merger. 

The Utica and Eisenhower bowling programs joined forces as one this year, something Mark Harnden said was talked about for a while due to low participation numbers experienced by both programs.

“We’re trying to really allow two programs to survive in the downside until more kids get interested in bowling,” he said. 

What the merger has created is a pair of powerful combined Utica-Eisenhower programs.

The girls team now features contributors from last season’s Macomb Area Conference Red and White champions joined together as one, with returning all-state bowlers Ava Mazza (sophomore, Utica) and Sophia Matheson (senior, Eisenhower) atop an incredibly deep lineup.

For the boys, what was the outstanding duo of Harnden and Corpuz has turned into a terrific trio, with sophomore Marco Mazza joining the fray. Ava and Marco Mazza are twins whose father, John, bowled professionally.

Keith DunlapKeith Dunlap has served in Detroit-area sports media for more than two decades, including as a sportswriter at the Oakland Press from 2001-16 primarily covering high school sports but also college and professional teams. His bylines also have appeared in USA Today, the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, the Houston Chronicle and the Boston Globe. He served as the administrator for the Oakland Activities Association’s website from 2017-2020. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.

(Photo of Dylan Harnden courtesy of the Harnden family.)