Bowlers ready to roll into new season

HARTINGTON — Bowling and Hartington-Newcastle is becoming quite the duo.

Last year, both the boys and girls teams finished strong with 14-8 and 13-7 overall dual meet records. The boys captured second place at district and the girls finished third.

It was a year where a veteran boys roster did the damage for HNS and the girls were made up of a small roster full of determination.

Now, the girls have the veterans to lean on and the boys are basically starting from scratch outside a trio of talented returners.

“With the boys, we only have one senior so we will be a young team,” head coach Nate Holan said. “I think this will allow for a lot of improvement throughout the year.

“The girls have everyone back that bowled last year which will allow us to be a hard team to beat.”

The boys bring back Jack Stephens (157 average), Barrett Bruning (142 average) and Ben Kleinschmit (135 average) while the girls are loaded and led by Rebekah Pinkelman (152 average), Meredith McGregor (134 average), Faith Pinkelman (130 average), Aaralynn Collier (100 average) and Riley Krause (89 average).

New bowlers Christian and Alex Elks and Dary Myo should make things even more interesting for the boys and girls.

“Both the boys and girls teams need to get more consistent on every throw,” Holan said. “This will allow us to be able to pick up our spares better and increase our individual and team scores.

I think the boys team will improve a lot this year and could have a good chance at districts. The girls team will be hard to beat. They should compete for a district title and a chance to make state.”

Rebekah Pinkelman is confident enough about the team this year and even believes it may have enough to challenge for a state title from the girls side.

“We’re looking really good, especially with a lot of us having put in practice over the spring and summer,” she said. “With us getting a youth league and us working so hard to get people into bowling, it’s amazing to see so many people interested. I think it’s a combination of seeing success in bowling and the youth league – it’s a way for kids to hang out with each other and have fun after school.

“I think we can win it all this year. It’s from our own, in my perspective – the only competition we have is Wayne and we beat them once and I bowl there a lot. I think I can match up with their anchor. With our girls improving we are at a good level to beat them this year. Our other girls are maybe not 200 bowlers but have put a lot of work in to get better.”

The sophomore Bruning said the boys will have a lot of work to do to keep trending in the winning direction.

“I feel pretty good, but overall, as a team, we definitely need to work on some stuff,” Bruning said. “We need to work on picking up our spares.”