Westside bowlers make history on the lanes

For the first time in the history of Westside High School, the girls and boys bowling teams are going to State Championships in the same year. After both teams put up great performances in the A-2 District tournament they look ahead to the State Championships in Lincoln. The girls team ran away beating out Marian by over 500 pins. The boys team made a comeback in the Baker games to edge out rival Creighton Prep by less than 200 pins. 

There were also five individuals that qualified for the state singles tournament. The two boys are junior Reed Elias and senior Xander York. The three qualifiers in the girls competition are senior Leia Osmera, sophomore Jordyn Shields and sophomore Abby Rosloniec. Westside bowling coach John McDonald was thrilled with the team’s performance.

“It’s awesome for the team, Everybody’s been working so hard all season and for that to pay off at the end is awesome,” McDonald said. “It means the world to them and it means a lot to us as coaches to see them succeed.”

This is the Warriors third year of the bowling program, and will be the first state appearance for the boys and second for the girls team. Each year the teams have made huge strides and this year was nothing short of that. The year was filled with breaking school and personal records, including, single game school records, high series records, Baker single game records, team total records, personal records for many bowlers and several other school records. 

“It was a lot of fun to be a part of this team in my last year,” senior Dominic Vincentini said. “We started off a really bad year one going like 1-15 and it just seemed like the process and how the team grew and now we’re playing at state is just really special.”

The goals for everyone seem to be the same, just go out and compete at the highest level against each team they play and just see how the pins fall from there. Both teams will play the number one seed in the first round, Grand Island for the boys and Fremont for the girls. 

“We can control what we can and just do our best,” Rosloniec said. “And see where we can get from there.

Westside has only had a couple girls ever qualify as an individual, making room for more history to be set this season. There has never been a boy qualify for state as an individual making Elias and York the first ever in the bowling program. 

“It sounds great to be the district winner,” Osmera said. “But I don’t think I could do it without the help of my team. They supported me through everything, bad or good.”

The Warriors girls and boys team will look to continue their historic season Monday Feb. 6, the five individuals will compete Wednesday Feb. 8 at Sun Valley Lanes in Lincoln.