Bison challenge four of state's better bowl teams at Lex

Coach Jana Sides provided these insights about the McCook High bowling team at Saturday's Lexington Invitational:

"Rough conditions! We might have been a little starstruck facing off against 2 of the top 20 teams in the state (! top 10). In fact, on the boys’ side, of the 6 teams invited, 4 are ranked in the top 11 IN THE STATE! Our bowlers struggled to find their shots with confidence.

1st round: Boys won Ogallala, lost to Lexington and NorthWest in 2nd and 3rd rounds. Bracket play was super close– boys lost to Hastings by a heartbreaking total of 30 pins in best of 5 Bakers games.

Highlights: nathan Barger picked up a difficult and unusual 2,5,10 split. His high score was 190. Blake Willis punched out with a turkey for his high game of 145. Corbin Shaw bowled through some wrist pain in the first game to come back 2nd game, and finish 3rd game with 6 in-a-row for a 232 (in the top 12 highest games bowled for the day) and a 540 series. Hudson Werkmeister, Blake Willis, and Nathan Barger had doubles to add to total pinfall for team scores.

Girls’ side: Girls won Ogallala 1st round, followed by a loss to Lexington and NorthWest in the next two rounds. In brackets, girls lost to Lexington 3-1 in Bakers game play. Jackie Sattler averaged over 149 for the 3-game series, with a high game of 257! She missed the medals for top 5 female bowlers by only 11 total pins! Peyton Thorpe averaged over 135 for the series with a high game of 147.

Next meet is at Ogallala on Thursday, followed by a HUGE tournament at Grand Island on Saturday.