Milan Girls Strike Early, Sweep Bracket to Clinch Historic Championship
By
Jeff Bleiler
Special for MHSAA.com
February 27, 2026
JACKSON — An eerie quiet had descended over Jax 60 when Kenleigh Vandergrift stepped onto the approach in the ninth frame.
The sophomore bowler from Milan High School walked toward the foul line, released her ball and broke the silence by yelling, “Yes!” before her ball had touched any pins.
Her ball answered by knocking all 10 pins down, and when senior Maggie Smith followed with two strikes of her own in the 10th frame, the Division 3 Finals trophy was heading east to Milan.
The Big Reds went unbeaten during match play, including a sweep of Ishpeming Westwood in the championship, to claim the school’s first Finals trophy in girls bowling after nearly winning the championship two years ago.
“It means so much,” Smith said. “Me and my girls have been working hard at practices, working on spares and quality shots, and it paid off.”
It was Milan’s day from the start as the Big Reds claimed the top seed after shooting 2,974 for the eight Baker and two regular games and winning nine straight Baker games, all by double figures, to emerge as champions.
Coach Adam Gilles said the team’s biggest hurdle was the Semifinal against Grass Lake — ranked No. 1 by the Michigan High School Interscholastic Bowling Association. The Warriors qualified fourth and beat Madison Heights Bishop Foley in the Quarterfinals in three straight.
Milan won the three games against Grass Lake 152-139, 163-153 and 181-115.
Westwood, meanwhile, qualified sixth with 2,766 and had to grind through two five-game matches against Flat Rock and Armada to reach the championship.
“To go 3-0 and not lose the whole way, that’s really difficult to do,” Gilles said. “Westwood went five games and five games, and that’s a lot of bowling. They get tired. Our girls stayed warm, stayed loose, had fun. You’re just bowling with your friends like we’re at Station 300. Just have a good time, and we’ll win.”
Milan entered the season having lost several bowlers from last year’s team, but Gilles and coach Linda Towler, who is in her fifth year at Milan, knew their goal was to build a team around Smith.
Enter sophomore Brooklyn Hildebrandt and senior Teresa Tomaszewski, who with Vandergrift, Smith, sophomore Ashley Ruetter and junior Savannah Michilak provided a solid foundation.
“When you have an anchor bowler like Maggie, the goal is to try to put the best team around her,” said Gilles, in his third year at Milan. “The new girls, Brooke and Teresa, they listened and they’re coachable, they’re sweet, they want to be part of the team. The girls took to them.”
Two years ago in the Finals, Milan lost a five-game heartbreaker to Madison Heights Bishop Foley. Smith said she carried forward into this season a lesson from that experience.
“I need to not give myself so much pressure,” she said. “We’re a team. We’re all in this together. Breathe through every shot, make my spares, if I get a split, get pin count.”
Westwood finished runner-up three years ago to Flint Powers Catholic. Coach Barrie Rae, in his 16th season, said he was proud of his team, which loses seniors Averie Vial, Olivia Letson and Isabelle Moebius but returns juniors Fara Bjork, Hailey Smail and Julianne Yohe.
“They started out a little slow, they knew it and they picked it up when they needed to,” Rae said. “When it came to match play, they did what they had to do. They bowled as a team. When one girl was bowling bad, the other four picked her up and that happened all day long.”
Smith and Vandergrift both qualified for the Singles tournament with Smith, who has committed to Spring Arbor University for next year and will be returning after finishing second last year and reaching the Quarterfinals two years ago.
“My goal is to make it to match play and whatever happens, happens,” Smith said. “I’ll always learn. If I lose, if I win, I always look at something to learn and build off that.”
Top Seeds Take D2 Top Honors
March 2, 2013
By Sarah Dorow
Special for Second Half
WATERFORD – History was made Saturday in Waterford as Jordan Richard, a junior from Tecumseh, became the first MHSAA Finals back-to-back singles champion.
"It's amazing," Richards said. "We wanted it as a team, too, but unfortunately it didn't work out so well."
She led the qualifying block with a score of 1,370 and high game of 268.
On her journey back to the finals she ousted number 16 seed Samantha Eldridge from Owosso (424-375), the eighth seed Samantha Knight from Richland Gull Lake (427-381) and Kayla Emmendorfer, the fourth seed from Flint Kearsley (425-400).
The last bowler who stood in the way of Richard's back-to-back championships was sixth-seeded senior Sabrina Senninger from Grand Rapids Northview.
In the semifinal round, Senninger knocked out Richard's teammate, junior Lauren McKowen, by a single pin.
But after the excitement, Senninger had to prepare to face the top-seeded defending champion.
"I knew that I would be going against Jordan, and I just told myself I needed to bowl my best and do what I could," Senninger said
And that included leaning on her fans for support.
"I think having my parents and family there definitely helped,” she added.
However, Richard's experience proved too much and she beat Senninger 450-326.
With her senior year on the horizon, Richard already is looking ahead toward a three-peat and what she plans to work on in the offseason.
"Spares, because I've been struggling with my 10 pin lately, and I've missed quite a few this weekend," she said.
This was the fourth MHSAA singles championship won by a Tecumseh bowler over the past five seasons. In addition to Richard's win in 2012, her older sister, Kara Richard, won in 2010 and Tawni Vollmer took the title for the Indians in 2009.
Holly's Andrew Anderson didn't begin competing this season until six weeks ago. But his credentials spoke for themselves: He had made the top 16 singles at the MHSAA tournament his freshman year, the quarterfinals his sophomore year, and is a member of the 2012 Junior Team USA.
The senior made the most of his Finals opportunity and beat Bay City John Glenn junior Alex Ouellette for the singles championship Saturday.
After the morning qualifier, which included a 299 game, Anderson was sitting in first with Ouellette second.
But Anderson and Ouellette, who also had made it to the quarterfinals before, knew positioning didn't guarantee a win.
"I just knew that qualifying didn't mean anything because if you bowl against the 16th or the first, they're still good bowlers, and you have to go out and do your own thing and make shots," Ouellette said.
Ouellette was able to lean on his strength of making spares and eased his way into the finals while Anderson was almost knocked out in the quarterfinals by Sault Ste. Marie senior Nick Beatty with a nail-biting score of 415-412.
"I was ahead and he, just like the match before, he came out striking 246 against me," Anderson said. "But I knew that I was going to have a chance being up by 40 pins. He gave me a chance to throw the first one and shut him out."
Once in the finals, Anderson had the carry and threw the first 10 strikes.
"You know the bowling gods liked me today,” he said. “Let's just say that."
While Anderson was striking, Ouellette applied his own strategy and did not watch his opponent's shots.
"You can't do anything about what the other person does, so if they go through the nose or throw a good strike it doesn't matter," Ouellette said. "It's still a strike. You can't do anything about how they throw it."
In the end, Anderson’s 289 game to start the finals match proved too much to overcome, and he beat Ouellette 518-406.
With Anderson ending his high school career on a high note, junior Ouellette is looking to do the same next year.
"I want to win it," said Ouellette. "So I'm going to use this as motivation that I've gotten here, I've gotten close and I know what it takes to win."
Click for full girls results and boys results.
