MUSKEGON TOWNSHIP - The Reeths-Puffer girls bowling team didn’t quite reach its goal at Wednesday’s Greater Muskegon Athletic Association City Tournament - but the Rockets had a great day, all the same.
They placed three bowlers in the top 10 in individual competition, finished first as a team in the preliminary rounds and advanced all the way to the team championship match at Northway Lanes.
The Rockets rolled a combined 1,782 in preliminary rounds, beating out second-place Oakridge (1,662) by more than 100 pins.
R-P top 10 bowlers Brook Buchan, Brenna Ackerman and Bianca Kammers.
R-P’s Bianca Kammers finished second in the individual competition, bowling games of 171 and 214 for a score of 385.
Brenna Ackerman finished fourth individually with a 191-151-342 series, while Brook Buchan finished sixth with a 148-165-313 series.
“I’m so proud of all of them,” said R-P assistant coach Amy Johnson, who spends a lot of time working with the girls team. “They’ve come a long way. They’ve done a great job. Brook Buchan has really stepped up for us lately.”
Ackerman gets ready to let a shot go at the GMAA tournament.
The Rockets made the final four of the team playoffs and downed Holton in the semifinals before falling to Fruitport in the championship round.
The loss to Fruitport was not particularly troubling for the Rocket girls because they have become pretty close with the Fruitport bowlers, according to R-P head coach Dan Kammers.
“The young ladies from Reeths-Puffer and the young ladies from Fruitport have formed sort of a bond,” he said. “They are friends. They really didn’t care who won today. If Fruitport makes the finals of an event and Reeths-Puffer doesn’t, the Reeths-Puffer girls will stick around and root for them. It’s true sportsmanship.”
R-P's Quinn Alderink, who finished in sixth place in the boys individual competition.
The R-P girls will be in contention for a championship again on Friday when they compete in the O-K Green conference postseason tournament.
The Reeths-Puffer boys also had some success on Wednesday, with Quinn Alderink finishing in sixth place individually with games of 205 and 180 for a score of 385.
The boys team finished in eighth place in the 11-team field.
