LAKEVILLE - Moving On! After a slow start, both of the LaVille bowling teams made a strong push in the latter stages to advance to the step ladder finals. A top three finish in the team competition was the end result overall in the sectional round at Quick's Lanes in Plymouth, IN. To go with that was a second consecutive trip to the Michigan City Regional. Rochester, Mishawaka, and LaVille earned the top 3 advancing spots and will advance to City Lanes for the regional team competition. "The sectional qualifying for the boys started out a little slow," said LaVille coach Kevin Kubsch. "In the first two games we were at 149 and 128, which put us in a hole that we needed to climb out of and game three was the start of the climb. We shot a nice 200 game but still had work to do. We followed those first three games with a 194 and 145 and at this point we were sitting 8th place. The team then started a solid run with the last seven games of 174, 190, 171, 159, 211, 189 and 188. We knew that we were near the cut line after the 9th game and but the last three games catapulted us into the #2 position after qualifying." During the lane change, Kubsch communicated to his Lancer team that they needed to calm down and read how each lane was reacting to the oil pattern. "We felt like we just needed to relax a little more after the first part of the qualifying games and understand how the lanes were transitioning as far as the oil pattern was breaking down," Kubsch said about his discussion with his team. "They did a good job of listening to what we were seeing with the conditions. Their experience last year during their run to semi-state has made them better at understanding that part of the game. I don't believe it was just one shot or two that sparked them, I just think their experience kicked in and they performed like we knew they could." GIRLS TEAM SECTIONAL On the girls' side, LaVille spent several weeks during the Michiana West Conference season at less than full strength due to injury. It was the final week of the season and the MWC Championships when the Lancer ladies seemed to find that mojo. In the opening portion of the team sectional, the LaVille gals started slowly before catching fire. "The girls also started out slow," Kubsch said of the ladies. "But they had an enthusiasm which we had not seen all season long and I believe it was sparked by the return of Trinity Pickett after being out most of the season due to injury. We explained to them that we felt if they just averaged around 135 for the day that they could be in a position to advance to regionals. Their first three games were 116, 115 and 90 which meant that they had to really focus and put up some big games to get back into contention. "They followed up the next three games with 141, 145 and then shot the high game of the qualifying round which was a 177. This was the boost they needed and finished out the qualifying with games of 132, 140, 132, 113, 163 and 146. Giving them a qualifying average of 134. The girls qualified 3rd and were only 37 pins out of 1st place. This comes after the girls finished with only two wins during the regular season." "The coaches all believe that their success was due to their enthusiasm that they put on display Saturday," concluded Kubsch. "This was absolutely the finest day the girls have had since we started the program back up." "This was absolutely the finest day the girls have had since we started the program back up." INDIVIDUAL COMPETITION Following the success of the LaVille Bowling program on Saturday, the focus moved from the team portion to the individual portion on Sunday. The individual segment originated from Chippewa Bowl in South Bend, IN. Several LaVille bowlers competed for the right to advance to the Michigan City Regional. In the end, three Lancer alley cats punched their ticket to the next level. John Andert, Chase Schmidt, and Andrew Wolford all qualified. Wolford put together back-to-back games to earn the 2024 individual sectional championship. "The entire weekend was a huge success with both the girls and boys qualifying for the regionals but also having three individuals qualify for that part of the regional tournament," Kubsh exclaimed following two days of bowling action. "This is without question a huge accomplishment for the Lancer Bowling program. This is what we have been striving for and what we will build upon moving this program forward. "John, Chase, and Andrew all qualified for regional with Andrew also being the Individual Sectional Champion," said Kubsch. "We also had three other bowlers who were very close to qualifying for regionals as well. Sean Kubsch was only 16 pins away from making the cut as well as Hayden Grindle being 24 pins out of the top 17 and Lowell Heminger being 28 pins out of the top 17. All in all it was a great performance by all the bowlers." When asked about Andrew's run during the individual tournament, Kubsch explained, "Andrew started out the individual side of the tournament with the high game of the day of 264 and then followed it up with 203 and 181. Andrew finished the day being the #2 seed in the stepladder finals where he bowled first against Hunter Kirkpatrick from South Bend Riley. Andrew came out on top of that match defeating Hunter 187-163. Andrew then bowled against Brody Million from Mishawaka High School. The match started out very close in the first four frames before a few breaks happened to come Andrew's way and he took advantage of those breaks and eventually came out on top of Brody 172 to 124 earning Andrew the individual sectional championship. "Chase Schmidt and John Andert put together three solid games in qualifying. John bowled games of 186, 231 and 166 placing 9th. Chase Schmidt bowled games of 202,162 and 202 placing 14th. Both Chse and John had great performances during the individual side of the sectionals.