D1 Standouts Finish Careers on Top
March 7, 2015
By Jon Malavolti
Special for Second Half
STERLING HEIGHTS – Redemption was the theme at Saturday’s MHSAA Division 1 Bowling Singles Final competition at Sunnybrook Lanes.
Ann Arbor Huron senior Allison Morris capped off her career the same way she started it – as the MHSAA champion. For boys title winner Derrick Norman, it was all about putting the past behind him, as the Saginaw Heritage senior previously had come up just shy of winning; he was a quarterfinalist in last year’s individual tournament, and twice finished as a runner-up as a member of his team – this year and in 2013.
Morris edged Canton sophomore Meghan Macunovich 512-470 in their championship match. The Huron senior jumped out to an early lead thanks to bowling 10 straight strikes in the first game, finishing with a 286-213 advantage.
“Once I started stringing strikes together, it was just kind of ‘Keep doing it,’” Morris said.
She nearly needed every pin, as Macunovich came storming back in the second game, which she won 257-226.
“It was huge because you saw how she game out of the gates the second game, so it gave me a good advantage,” Morris said of her early lead.
While the pair exchanged strikes, they also shared the occasional congratulatory gesture, as they are friends off the lanes.
“Meghan is one of my really good friends, so we were just trying to have fun,” Morris said. But she added that it can be “tough to play someone you know,” a sentiment shared by Macunovich.
“Our coaches teach us, even if you’re friends with a person, act like you don’t know them,” the Canton sophomore said. “That’s what got her through. And then when I started bowling like I should, the second game, that’s what I was doing.”
Macunovich realized her rally should have come sooner to keep up with her friend, but was pleased overall with her result, and for Morris.
“I started striking too late. I just didn’t do it soon enough,” she said. “I am happy about it. I’m happy for her too.”
And she knows it’s an experience she can build on.
“I’m really confident coming off of this,” Macunovich said. “I wasn’t necessary expecting even to make the cut. I was just glad to make it. The fact that I ran it through and made it, I’m feeling pretty good.”
Morris felt pretty good too, accomplishing the goal she’s set out to match for the past three seasons.
“My freshman year, I was kinda just going in for fun,” she said. “I tried to bowl my best, and ended up winning. Sophomore year, I felt a lot of pressure going into it, I was kind of in my sophomore slump, I guess, I didn’t really have a good season.
“Junior year I made states, was trying to win, made top 16. So ever since my freshman year, everyone’s been telling me you have to go in and go out the same way, so that’s just what I was trying to do this year, was finish the way I started.”
The boys competition was a little tenser at the end, with Norman eventually edging Macomb L’Anse Creuse North junior Kyle Hayes 488-469.
“It’s unbelievable. I’m blessed. It hasn’t really sunk in yet,” Norman said, just 24 hours after the Hawks’ senior-laden squad fell just short of the title in the Team Final.
“You win some, you lose some,” he added. “Today was just a new day. I just put yesterday behind me.”
Heritage coach Todd Hare said he was “a little concerned” how his bowlers would handle the quick turnaround amidst the tough competition.
“We had four guys bowling today. I thought maybe they’d run out of gas,” he said.
But it wasn’t the physical toll that made a difference on the day, although it wasn’t easy. Yet, his coach said, it was Norman’s focus that allowed him to rise to the top this time.
“He’s worked really hard at staying focused; nothing rattles him,” Hare said. “He bowled well last year, but I think that’s the difference this year – it’s all mental at this point. It’s just, you know, a testament to all the work he puts in. He works so hard at his game.”
Norman said before today’s competition he focused on making this a “business trip” to bring the title home.
“It feels amazing,” he said. “Just to win it all, that’s what I came here to do.”
But before he was crowned champion, he had to fend off a fierce competitor in Hayes, who won the first game 244-224.
Norman said his plan was to match whatever Hayes did: “If he left something, to strike.”
And strike he did. Norman started, and then later finished, the second game with five consecutive strikes to win 264-225 and clinch the title.
“Just an amazing ride,” Norman reflected.
Hayes said there was “really no room for errors” and that the Final would be decided by “who missed first.”
“And I ended up having that one opening in the second (game) that ended up costing the whole match,” he said. “It just proves how consistent you have to be to be a champion.”
As for Hayes, he also hopes he can build from the experience, especially after missing the cut for the knockout rounds of the Finals last year by nine pins.
“I’m pretty happy about it,” he said of his finish. “It’s a big improvement over last year. This year I just came in wanting to make the cut at states. I didn’t even care where I finished, so coming in second, that’s nothing to sneeze at.
“It leaves room for improvement, something else to accomplish,” Hayes continued. “I’ll savor it now and work harder in the summer, so that I’m first next year.”
Click for full girls results and boys results.
Friday Standouts, Saturday Champs in D3
March 1, 2014
By Chip Mundy
Special to Second Half
JACKSON – Fremont junior Sam Brandt’s opponent in the MHSAA singles bowling championship match Saturday seemingly had a hometown advantage.
However, despite living 150 miles away, Brandt feels right at home and has had plenty of success at Airport Lanes in Jackson, and he became just the third male to win an MHSAA team championship and a singles championship in the same season in bowling. The other two were Peter Duran of Sandusky (Class C-D in 2005) and Trevor Jackson of Hudsonville Unity Christian (Class B in 2004).
On Friday, Brandt led Fremont to the MHSAA team championship with a 268 in the final game, and Saturday he qualified ninth and swept four two-game matches to win the singles title. He defeated Zach UIicny of nearby Jackson Lumen Christi 414-332 in the championship match.
Last November, Brandt won a Youth Masters championship at Airport Lanes on nearly the identical pair of lanes, and last year he finished third in the MHSAA Finals singles event also at Airport Lanes.
“The shot was almost similar to Friday, but every pair was different,” said Brandt, whose brother Zach Brandt won the Division 3 singles championship in 2011 and was runner-up in 2010. “Everybody throws different, so it shifts different ways, and you play different lines. But nobody was playing the outside, so I kind of took that as an advantage.”
Brandt averaged 200.5 pins in six qualifying games to earn the ninth seed in match play. He averaged 199.2 in the next three two-game matches, setting up the championship clash with Ulicny, who had averaged 204.2 during the same stretch.
However, Ulicny had trouble striking on lanes 35-36, and Brandt took an early lead. Ulicny grabbed his only lead in the 10th frame of the first game when he struck three times – his first strikes of the championship match – to take a two-pin edge. However, Brandt, who was working on a strike in the ninth, also struck out in the 10th to take a 203-185 edge after one game.
“I just made sure that I had my line,” Brandt said of the key 10th frame. “I had to execute it, and I knew what I had to do.”
Ulicny started the second game with three consecutive open frames while Brandt had a double and a spare to build a huge lead. Brandt poured it on with three strikes in a row late for a 211-147 edge.
Brandt, a right-hander with a high backswing, is patient on the lanes and takes considerable time before starting his approach.
“I’m just trying to clear my head and focus on my mark,” he said. “I know what I have to do; I just have to focus.
“I just run through the steps in my head and just relax – you have all the time in the world until you throw your shot.”
Heather Bruci of Richmond came close to duplicating Brandt’s double-championship weekend in the girls singles. Although she won that event, her Richmond team lost on Friday in the Semifinals after outdistancing the field in qualifying by more than 300 pins to earn the No. 1 seed.
“This doesn’t make up for it – yea, it’s awesome to be a state champion, but it would have been even greater to be the team state champion,” said Bruci, a senior. “We really worked hard at what we do, and it was really close. I honestly think we could have won it, but we just got lazy.”
Bruci averaged 199.5 pins in the six-game qualifying session and was seeded No. 2 for match play. After an 89-pin victory in the round of 16, Bruci had to face teammate and good friend Noelle Scheuer in the Quarterfinals. Bruci had games of 202 and 243 to sideline Scheuer 445-382.
“Bowling my teammate was hard because I’ve bowled with Noelle since I was 3 years old,” Bruci said. “We’ve always worked up to this; it’s always been me and her. We always said we were going to bowl each other in the state championship, and it happened.
“I knew I wanted it that bad, so I went out and got it.”
That set up a Semifinal match against Victoria Bender of Croswell-Lexington, which defeated Richmond in the Team Semifinals on Friday and went on to win the team championship. Bruci won with a two-game total of 334-313, but a split in the ninth frame of the second game made it interesting.
“I was just thinking to save myself, and I have a chance to win it,” she said.
Richmond and Croswell-Lexington are members of the Blue Water Area Conference, and the girls on the bowling teams know each other well.
“I have a lot of respect for them; they’re great friends of mine, and they’re always nice to me and say congratulations and cheer me on, and I cheer them on, too,” Bruci said of Croswell-Lexington. “Victoria and I are really good friends, but when it comes to competition, there are no friends. You have to do what you have to do, and you can get together after.”
In the championship match, Bruci had a strike or nine-count on 19 of her first 20 first-ball deliveries before leaving a split in the final frame of the second game.
“My coach told me I had already won, so I wanted to go out like a champion should go out,” said Bruci, who defeated Hannah Chase of Alma 428-323 in the championship match. “I threw a split, but I’m still happy with everything.
“I pretty much threw the same shot all day. I made an adjustment of three to four boards all day, and my shot was in the oil, so I was good all day.”
Bruci averaged 199.4 for 14 games on Saturday.
“I’ve been here all four years, and this is the first year I qualified for singles,” she said. “I walked in and thought I was not going to walk away without a state championship.”
Click for full boys results and full girls results.
PHOTO: MHSAA Division 3 singles champions Heather Bruci of Richmond and Sam Brandt of Fremont.