HAYFIELD — The Austin High School varsity and junior varsity bowling teams each claimed victories Saturday in matches at Spare Time Lanes.
Both teams had matches against teams from Rochester John Marshall and Rochester Century High Schools. The Austin Packers varsity team remained reasonably consistent on its way to winning their opening match against John Marshall.
Austin won games one, two and four of the five-game match to claim the victory. The scores were 235-189, 201-153, 203-212, 179-153, and 166-191.
"Scoring and fill completions were very good for both teams, but our bowlers came through when it counted most," Austin coach Jim Juenger said. "Only one Austin bowler missed more than two fill opportunities in the match."
The Packers were led by Ben Farrell (8-for-8), Collin Bailey and Lucas Hegna (both 9-for-10) and Kody Phillips (15-for-17). Austin’s total score of 984 for the match was very close to its conference leading 190 average per game.
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The second varsity match was against Century. Austin won by scores of 168-180, 176-165, 157-134, 195-149, and 138-170.
"This match was not a thing of beauty, with both teams battling changing lane conditions, erratic scoring and a letdown in fill completions," Juenger said. "The match win avenged a loss to Century earlier in the season."
Austin was led by Kody Phillips, shooting 9-for-11 in fill completions. Close behind were Collin Bailey, Ben Farrell and Lucas Hegna, all filling 7 of 10 opportunities. The match was dominated by a number of splits for both teams, with the scoring suffering as a result.
The Packers varsity record is now 9-3 in match play. This puts Austin in a tie for first-place in the conference standings with Rochester Mayo.
　
The Austin junior varsity team closed out their regular season on a successful note, winning all five games in both of their matches for the day. Because of a shortage of available lanes, all junior varsity matches were bowled after the varsity matches were completed.
The junior Packers started competition with a match against the John Marshall Rockets. Austin won by scores of 130-125, 180-123, 132-112, 193-155, and 161-122.
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"As evidenced by the erratic scoring and fill completions in the match, the junior varsity bowlers also found the changing lane conditions to be somewhat troublesome," the coach said. "They managed to come through at the right times, however, to sweep the five games from the Rockets."
Tim Farrell and Andrew Billat were both perfect in fill completions. Logan Hegna followed close behind, shooting seven for eight in fill opportunities.
The second junior varsity match against Rochester Century was also a bit inconsistent for the Austin JV. Despite the erratic scoring swings, the Packers won 152-90, 203-133, 141-99, 185-142, and 147-137.
Hunter Johnson (4-for-4) and Matt Neumann (6-for-6) led the junior Packer charge with perfect matches. They were aided by Andrew Billat, Isaac Bos and Joe Ulland, all going 5-for-6 in fill completions. Farrell went 8-for-10 in fill completions. Only one Austin bowler missed more than two fill opportunities.
Austin’s junior varsity team closed the regular season with an 11-1 match play record. This was good enough to allow the junior Packers to repeat as regular season champions in the league.
