News Story by Bec Willenborg/Dyersville Commercial
Eight seniors graced the bowling lanes for the Western Dubuque boys’ bowling team and led the Bobcats to a record-setting season.
“We had a very good regular season,” said coach Grant Kramer. “We had the highest meet average and baker game average in Class 2A. We couldn’t have asked for anything better, but we ultimately came up short at substate.”
Those eight seniors had a lot to do with the season. Ethan Potter, Reegan Merkes, Justin Kurt and Charlie Gottschalk were regular starters, while Landon Clemen, Cruze Kluesner, Gavin Frost and Tanis Willen bring provided backup.
Potter qualified for the state tournament as an individual and ended up third overall, the highest for any Bobcat in school history since the format change. He owns the high season average (221.5), the second-highest game of the season (267), behind Merkes at 279 and the third-highest series (489) trailing Merkes (546) and Carsten Bahl and Gottschalk (516).
“These seniors are such a good group of kids. The majority have been out for bowling all four years. They were the perfect example of what it takes to put in the work and go the extra mile,” added Kramer.
He will return two starters next season, David Pettera and Bahl. Pettera also made the state field and, along with Bahl, will be the core of next year’s young team.
“For the most part, we will be young and will definitely need the next man up mentality going into next year,” said the coach.
He hopes to continue the scoring advantage they had this season, where one of the highlights was their win at the Independence Bakers Tournament, topping 17 other teams. ”We really did get better every week, too,” added Kramer, “and set a season-high five different times. It was fun to be part of that.”
Individual season averages, high games, series include (with at least 20 starts): Potter (221.5, 267, 489); Merkes (207.5, 279, 546); Bahl (204.8, 259, 516); Pettera (204.2, 256, 447); Kurt (198.7, 241, 449); Gottschalk (197.6, 258, 516); (two starts); Clemen (197, 235, 394); Devon Rubner (178, 182, 357); and Kluesner (173, 189, 347).
