By Rhonda Hutchison
On January 18, the Wildcat Bowling Team competed in the Cooper Bowling Jaguar Classic held at Bellewood Lanes in Newport. There were a total of 17 boys/coed teams in the tournament. Each team consisted of five members.
In round one each team member had to bowl two regulation games for seeding. The Wildcat team with their two seeding games consisted of Adam Straus 157-164, Maddie Marshall 129-158, Kree Brewer 147-199, Braden Brann 156-179, Kyan Brewer 230-192. The Wildcats total pin fall for the seeding round was 1711 landing them in sixth place. In round two each team had to bowl four baker games. The total of these games would be added to each teams first round score. The Wildcats had a rough first game only scoring 136 pins.
After a quick pep talk by the coaches, the Wildcats began to claw their way up with a 208 second game. Once again the team came out fighting and finished the third game with a 181. Determined to reach the top the Wildcats rolled another great game of 206. At the end of the second round the Wildcats had a 2442 total pin fall.
Now the team had moved themselves into fourth place and were within striking distance of first. The Wildcats came together as a fighting machine and determined not to be outdone rolled a 216 in their fifth baker game. As the pins kept falling the team kept climbing and ended their sixth baker game with a 208. Now they knew they were within reach and dug down deep to end games 7 and 8 with a 172 and a 177. This gave the team a total pin fall for the day of 3215.
The Wildcats had fought hard and now had to wait for the scoring to be tallied for all teams. During this wait the girls and boys all tournament teams were announced. Pendleton County had two bowlers named to the all-tournament teams. Kree Brewer was third high scorer in the girls division and Kyan Brewer was second high scorer in the boys division. As the winners of the team portion of the tournament were being announced, everyone held their breath. Then the Wildcats names were called for the runner up of the tournament and the fans went wild. The team's hard work and never give up attitude had paid off as the team stepped up together to accept their trophy. Simon Kenton took the first place title for the tournament.