Bowling falls shy of a state title

DES MOINES—The Red Oak bowling teams missed out on an opportunity to win a state title, but were still able to have a strong placing at the 1A State Bowling Meet at Plaza Lanes Thursday afternoon.

For the third straight year, the boys team finished in second place with a score of 3,081. The boys were less than 100 pins behind Western Dubuque-Epworth, who won their second straight state title with a score of 3,154. They also finished 51 pins ahead of third place Fairfield.

The girls team meanwhile finished in sixth place with a score of 2,559, 34 pins behind Mount Pleasant, who scored a 2,593. Keokuk won the state girls title with a score of 2,811.

Red Oak’s boys’ found themselves in fifth place entering the Baker games.

The boys’ outscored everyone in the field during the first game, posting a 206.

Game two was an even stronger performance by the boys team as they kicked it off by getting strikes during the first six frames.

“Once you get that momentum and adrenaline in you, you just pull through,” Mellott said. “Everything was carrying. Lane four was carrying a lot better than lane three.”

This would lead to Red Oak bowling one of the highest Baker games during the state tournament as they recorded a 266.

“They shot really well and pulled it together,” Head Coach Darrell Berry said about the boys’ second baker game.

The boys’ continued to close the gap by bowling a 230 and 215 in the third and fourth Baker games. They would struggle, however, in the fifth Baker game. David Terry provided some momentum early in the games by picking up a split spare. Brian Wade would follow up with a strike.

“I just threw it and it came out good, got wound up after I made it,” Terry said about the spare. “It got everybody pumped up, but after that it all went downhill.”

Red Oak was unable to keep the momentum rolling and finished the fifth game with a 145. It was their only Baker game below 200.

“I think we just got a little over-excited,” Terry said.

Berry said the team struggled in the last Baker game.

“We had a hard time getting that fifth Baker game going,” Berry said. “It just seems like we have one game that we kind have just gotten down on and that was it. It’s not like they were bowling bad. They couldn’t string anything together.”

For the girls’, they were able to bowl a 993 and 998 in the first two series games. After subtracting the lowest score, Red Oak had 1,692, putting them in fifth place heading into the Baker games. They would bowl an 867 for their Baker games.

“We knew going in they had to shoot a 2,550, to be respectable,” Berry said. “They accomplished their goal. What most people don’t know though is the 2,550 is 200 over average.”

Kristi Yardas led the way for Red Oak in the first series game as she had a 176. All the girls’ had a 150 game or better during the first series.

“I was proud of everybody,” Yardas said. “We brought everything today and I could not ask for anything more on that.”

Kaitlin Walston bowled the high game for the girls as she had a 199 in the second game. Walston missed out on being in the individual finals.

Walston finished with a 365 series and placed 15th overall. Maranda Myers had a 347 series, while Jayden Hilding bowled a 338.

Yardas finished with a 333 and Shelby Storesund recorded a 309 series. Brittany Plambeck finished with a 299 series.

“We all buckled down and we fought together,” Yardas said.

Last year, Red Oak finished in eighth place.

Yardas said it felt so much better than finishing in eighth.

“We busted our butts trying to get here,” Yardas said. “We were the underdog all the way. We finally pulled it out and it worked for us.”
Red Oak wasn’t the only Hawkeye Ten team competing as Denison-Schleswig finished fourth on the girls’ side.

Taylor Mellott was the lone bowler for both teams to place in the top 10 individually. Mellott finished fifth with a 671 series. The senior started out strong by bowling a 258 in his first series game, which was the second highest behind eventual champion AJ Chapman’s first series. Chapman, a senior at West Delaware, won with a score of 721.

Mellott struggled in his second series game as he finished with a 212.  Mellott said he left a split in the fifth frame of his second game and that it brought his momentum down.

“I just couldn’t get the corners to carry. I needed to have a 234 to set up going into the finals,” Mellott said.

Mellott still made it into the top 10, although he came up short in a bid to three-peat as state champ. Mellott was unable to gain ground as he finished with a 201.

“He’s harder on himself than anybody could be. I’m still proud of the way he shot. Anytime he can come in and shoot this well at state, still that’s a fantastic job,” Berry said about Mellott.

Mellott finishes his high school career with two state high school titles. He scored a 300 game for the first time in his career, last month during a meet at Denison-Schleswig.

Mellott has had quite a few recruitments thus far. Thus far, he’s talked to Grand View College out of Des Moines, as well as Midland in Nebraska and even Wichita State in Kansas.

“I’m going to have my decision pretty soon,” Mellott said.

The rest of the boys’ team finished outside of the top 20. Brian Wade had a 400 series to finish 23rd, while Terry was in 24th with a 399.

Corey Marsden had a 387 series, Casey Dykes recorded a 363 and Hayden Berry had a 349.

The team had arrived a day earlier and was able to spend some time together following practice by going to the mall for shopping, as well as going to the movies.

The girls went through the regular season undefeated, while the boys had only one loss for the season.