Falls Bowlers Look Back at Championship Season

Ashley Bell remembers quite well the final stages of the girls state bowling tournament last season. Bell, the team’s best bowler, needed to make two strikes to put her team in position to win the state championship.

She did it. And all she needed to secure the state championship was to knock down one more pin in that 10th frame. That seemed easy enough. Pick up the spare ball, roll it down the middle and celebrate the state title. No way, Bell said. She goes for the strike and hits the pocket perfectly.

“I wanted to show the other team that if we were going to win, we were going to win in style,” said Bell, the reigning state individual champion.

Bell, now a freshman at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, was one of several graduates who attended practice last week in what turned into a homecoming event at the Village Bowl.

Bell, along with Gina Emmer, Katie Wechlo and Montana Mariscal, were home for the holiday break. Emmer goes to UW-River Falls, Wechlo attends UW-Stevens Point and Mariscal is at Carroll University in Waukesha. It was a good time to look back at that championship season and to look ahead.

Despite the loss of the four seniors, the Falls bowlers are performing quite well this season. The Indians are in second place in the White Division of the Wisconsin High School Bowling Club with a 10-3 record, trailing Germantown by a game.

Leading the Indians this season is senior Jessica Kickbush, the lone returning starter from last year’s title team. Kickbush is third in the area with a fill percentage of 83.06 percent and Cassie Sedgwick is at 69.78 percent. Justine Laubush is at 61.45 percent.

Although the Falls girls are doing well this season, in many ways this is a rebuilding season. During the practice, you can see coach Scott Ahrens trying to help a young player develop a hook. And at the other end, Bell is providing instruction and inspiration to some of the other players.

“We’re doing very well, doing better than I thought,” Ahrens said. “We have three freshmen, three sophomores and one senior. It’s all new to them, but they’re catching on quickly. I’m hoping to make it back to state again this season.  We’ll see how it goes.”

High school and college bowling teams use what is called the Baker System for its matches. In the Baker System, a minimum of five bowlers participate in a game. If a bowler rolls the first frame, they will get the opportunity to bowl the sixth frame. Last season, it was Bell who rolled the fifth and tenth frames for Falls.

“Usually you put your two best bowlers last,” Ahrens said. “The fourth bowler is there to set up the anchor bowler for the tenth frame. Usually you put your bowlers there who get the most strikes.”

Bell is the only one of the graduates who is still bowling competitively. But they all look back at last year’s state championship as truly a special moment.

“I miss the excitement,” Katie Wechlo said. “It made my senior year great. It sort of completed everything.”

Said Montana Mariscal, “I miss being with the team. Last year, we really clicked. We were all in sync with each other.”

And while the current Falls bowlers will get the opportunity to match the 2010 champions’ athletic achievements, there’s one aspect they won’t be able to touch, Ahrens conceded.

“They’ll never be as loud as last year’s team,” Ahrens said. “The cheering last year was unreal.”