Butch Harmon
Sports Scene
While Davison High School has a proud athletic tradition, the only state championship trophies in the trophy case belonged to the wrestling team.
That is until this March.
Davison’s collection of state championship wrestling trophies have been joined by a state championship trophy won by the girls’ bowling team. The girls brought home the Division 1 state title after turning in a championship performance at M-66 Bowl in Battle Creek.
“The girls stayed to the task at hand,” said coach Robert Snyder. “We had an undefeated season and we won the Big Nine Conference for the third straight season. Then we dominated the Lansing regional. We struggled a little bit in our Baker games at state, but we came back and finished strong. I’m very, very proud of them. They had an awesome day.”
Davison wrapped up the state title by defeating Anchor Bay by almost 200 pins in the finals. The two teams played one regular game and two Baker games in the final round, and the Cardinals won by a score of 1,292 – 1,129. The Cardinals posted Baker games of 233 and 211 while Anchor Bay countered with Baker games of 155 and 156.
In the final individual game, the Cardinals received scores of 181 from Brooklyn Greene, 179 from Brittney Groulx, 168 from Heather Bauer, 167 from Brooke Wood, and 153 from Erin Brown as they outscored Anchor Bay 848 – 818.
Davison reached the finals by defeating Walled Lake Central 1,204 – 1,070 in the semifinals and Northville 1,308 – 1,109 in the quarterfinals.
Davison finished second in the qualifying block in the morning. The Cardinals had some sub-par Baker games early but responded with a 221 Baker game and a 930 in one of their regular games to key their qualifying round.
“This is Davison’s first state championship in a sport other than wrestling, and everyone is very happy and ecstatic,” Snyder said. “This is something that our seniors have always wanted and worked for. We lost to Holt in the semifinals in 2010, and our seniors wanted to make it back. That was our ultimate goal and they accomplished it.”