Competing in their first invitational of the season, the boys and girls bowling teams traveled to Ionia for the Lowell Invitational. With Saturday’s event being an invitational, the format and scoring were different than previous head-to-head matchups. Each team bowled in six baker games to start off the day; the scores from the baker games were added up to create a team total, which was then used to determine seeds for the top eight teams for bracket play. After the qualifying games, the teams played two games together against an opponent, and whichever team had the higher score moved on.

On the boys side of things, it wasn’t the team’s most successful day. The Rangers did fairly well but failed to make the top eight during the qualifying round, which resulted in their tournament being cut short. The baker games were filled with distractions from opposing fans and inconsistencies. A bright spot among the losses was junior Ryan Andrews, who bowled a high school career-high 178.

The girls team, on the other hand, had a lot more success than the boys did. Helped by some consistent bowling from senior Sydney Payne, the girls started off strong and qualified for bracket play with the sixth seed out of eight. They drew Forest Hills Eastern as an opponent in the first round, and FHC handily beat the Hawks with team scores of 160 and 123. After advancing past FHE, the team faced the Unity Christian Crusaders, who proved to be too much for the Rangers to handle. After some less consistent bowls from the Rangers, as well as stellar play from the Crusaders, FHC fell short in the semifinals with scores of 144 and 95. Senior Addy Kaechele showed her best on Saturday, as she rolled several strikes during bracket play en route to the team’s third-place finish.

Both teams will face Greenville on Monday, a team that beat both Lowell teams handily; Lowell is a team that defeated the Rangers with ease, so this matchup will be difficult for FHC. The girls will look to feed off the momentum from Saturday, while the boys are looking to turn their season around with a win.