Comet bowlers pick-up honors at awards banquet

By John Burbridge 

sports@charlescitypress.com 

CHARLES CITY — Michael Hruska didn’t know he was going speak in front of such a large crowd. 

He had taken a seat close to the potluck buffet table that stretched more than halfway across the Charles City High School cafeteria, which played host to the Charles City Comets Bowling Banquet on Monday. 

With his back turned to most of the attendees and intending to go last with all the bowlers, parents and coaches ahead of him, he remarked that buffet line seemed to go on forever and that he was due to talk in front of all these people after dinner. 

When Hruska eventually went front and center to face his audience, he finally was able to grasp the size of the mass before him. 

“I never talked in front of so many people before,” he said. 

Hruska was there to present a pair of $500 scholarships in the name of his son, Mark Hruska, who died at the age of 35 in March of 2015. 

“Mark was an average student and an average athlete, but he sure loved bowling,” Michael said of his son, who was often bowling compadres with the sons of Comet boys head coach Doug Bohlen. 

The scholarships are annually awarded to Comet senior bowlers who best exhibit the passion Mark had for the sport. 

This season’s recipients were multiple individual and team state-qualifiers Payton Hadley and Darian Hesse. 

Michael Hruska has presented the memorial scholarships before, but this year’s banquet included a belated “Senior Night” recognition originally scheduled to take place before Charles City’s final regular-season home dual that ended up being cancelled due to weather. Thus, attendees and food varieties were more plentiful for this year’s event. 

In addition to the Comet seniors and their parents being formally honored, Charles City’s resident All-State, All-District and All-Conference were also feted. 

Sophomore Noah White, a Class 1A individual state runner-up as a freshman, was named First Team All-State by the Iowa Girls Coaches Association (which honors boys and girls), First Team All-District by the same organization, and First Team All-North Central Bowling Conference after averaging 226.39 per game this season — a Comet boys team record. 

White’s senior teammate Jayden Lopez was named First Team All-Conference and Second Team All-District after averaging just above 200 this season; and freshman teammate Cooper Holm was named First Team All-Conference after averaging just below 200. 

Junior Sullivan Gerleman, who qualified to state as an individual and eventually placed seventh, was named Second Team All-Conference; sophomore Joey Robel, who recently bowled his first 300 sanctioned game in Project X youth-adult league action at Comet Bowl, was named Second Team All-Conference; and junior Bryce Elsbury, whom Bohlen credits for throwing one of the best balls on the team, was named Second Team All-Conference to round out the accolades for the boys. 

Comet senior Isabel Crawford, a two-time individual state-qualifier, was named First Team All-District and First Team All-Conference; Hadley was named First Team All-Conference and Second Team All-District; Hesse was named Second Team All-Conference; and sophomore Kinleigh Bahe was named Second Team All-Conference. 

Bohlen addressed some of the highlights of the boys’ season, which included setting a team record with a dual-meet pinfall total of 3,410 in a close win over New Hampton, and coming from 210 pins down to catch Denver to claim the lone berth at the Class 1A Team State-Qualifier at Comet Bowl. 

Charles City girls coach Casey Brandau outlined the grit of her team that, after negotiating some intersquad turmoil during the regular season, came together at the right time during the postseason and placed third at the State Team Tournament after giving perennial powerhouse and eventual state champion Camanche a run for its money in the semifinal rounds of the championship bracket.