Comet girls advance to State Bowling Team Tournament; Payton Hadley qualifies for Individual Tournament

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — Though her ticket to state was already punched as a member of the Charles City girls bowling team, it didn’t look like Comet senior Payton Hadley was going to return to state as an individual.

An individual state-qualifier from last season, Hadley started the individual round of Monday’s Class 1A State-Qualifying Meet at Comet Bowl with a 138 in the first game of a three-game series. Things continued to not bode well for Hadley in the second game with a pair of opens in the first two frames.

But Hadley eventually found a line and managed to string six strikes in a row on way to rolling a 234 in the second game. Hadley continued to bowl well in the third game as her 202 capped her series at 574.

Only West Delaware senior Amelia Schnieders recorded a higher three-game series (586) among the individuals as her and Hadley, as well as Waukon senior Lauryn Howard (563) and West Delaware sophomore Natalie Palmer (546) finished in the top four for individual qualification.

Charles City senior Isabel Crawford, a two-time state-qualifier and a state medalist as a sophomore, rolled a 529 series good for seventh place.

Earlier, the Comet lineup of Crawford, Hadley, senior Darian Hesse, junior Kayla Streich, sophomore Kinleigh Bahe and freshman Alexis Putney with junior Kaleigh Krueger available as an alternate were able to compile a total pinfall of 2,646 in 15 games (176 average) while winning the Baker Rotation team round by more than 200 pins over runner-up North Fayette Valley.

With only the top team advancing, Charles City’s girls qualified for state for the second season in a row.

The Class 1A Boys and Girls Individual State Tournament will take place at Cadillac Lanes in Waterloo next Monday (Feb. 24) starting at 9 a.m.

The Class 1A Boys and Girls Team State Tournament will take place at Cadillac Lanes the following Wednesday (Feb. 26) starting at 3 p.m.

Charles City will host the Class 1A Boys State-Qualifying Meet at Comet Bowl on Tuesday with the starting time moved up an hour later to 10 a.m.