Ithaca’s Vernon, St. Louis’ Mitchell roll into state quarterfinals

Two mid-michigan prep bowlers advanced into the quarterfinal round of the MHSAA individual state finals Saturday in Ithaca’s Riley Vernon and St. Louis’ Shannon Mitchell.

In all, 10 mid-michigan prep bowlers competed in the qualifying block portion of the finale, yet only Vernon and Mitchell finished in the top 16 to advance into the head-to-head quarterfinals.

Vernon finished fifth in the qualifying block with a 1,209. From there he was seeded fifth. He beat Kalamazoo Hackett’s Joseph Lewis in the quarterfinals 388-322 before rolling past Danville’s Kevin Every in the semifinals 342-315.

In the semifinals, he lost to eventual state champion Ethan Lindsay of Burr Oak 355-337.

On the D4 girls finals, St. Louis’ Mitchell finished eighth in the

qualifier with a 1,035. She fell to Sandusky’s Brooke Spillane 346-309 in the quarterfinals.

Both Vernon and Mitchell competed in the D4 finals from Super Bowl in Canton.

Breckenridge’s Aaron Stephens was 23rd in qualifying with a 1,052 with Coleman’s David Maki 26th (1,043); Ithaca’s Lucas Gruesbeck 28th (1,022); Ithaca’s Isidore Baumann 37th (993) and Farwell’s Jarin Burger 53rd (903).

In the Division 3 state finals from Jax 60 in Jackson three bowlers competed in Harrison’s Jaynie Hawmilton, Kristi Thomas and Shepherd’s Sarah Montney.

Hamilton was 17th in qualifying, missing out on advancing by three pins as she rolled a 1,043.

Montney was 23rd (1,026) and Thomas was 51st (915).