Dixon Varsity Men’s Bowling Team Meets Sterling High Bowling Team at Sterling

By Debra Tennison

Dixon Varsity Men’s Bowling Team met the Sterling High Varsity Bowling Team at Sterling for their first three game match of the season. 

Family and friends packed the observation area in support of their respective teams. Warm up and stretching exercises preceded the National Anthem, followed by an eight-minute practice session. 

Dixon’s Varsity Men’s bowling team consists of Wyatt Miller, Cody Geil, David Laird, Ben Zimmerman, Clark Bonnewell, and Sam Gingras. All six of the Varsity bowlers are either Freshman or Sophomores. Last season was a team building year as the year prior to that the experienced seniors graduated leaving the team starting fresh. According to Head Coach Jim Tatlock, a few of the bowlers had little to no experience prior to last season. 

Tatlock coaches the Dixon High School and middle school teams. He is hopeful that this season will improve as the returning bowlers now have some experience under their belts. A few of the bowlers attended a “Bowling Camp” during the summer months in order to learn new skills and polish their styles. 

The fast-paced match consisted of three games and each game with 10 frames. The bowlers got right down to business with serious faces all around. There were high fives from team-mates and applause from the observers for any strikes or spares but overall the atmosphere was subdued and serious.

 Sophomore Cody Geil bowled a “Turkey” (three strikes in a row) in the first game. His first game ended with a score of 191 but the Sterling team had a strong bowler in Tristan Oelrich with his total for the first game at 256 points. Sterling threw up an impressive total of 607 points for a first game win, with Dixon trailing by 90 points. 

Dixon rallied in the second and third game of the three-game match and closed the gap. By the end of the tough three game match, Dixon pulled up and ended with only a three-pin loss. 

The final point scores for the entire first three gane match of the Dixon Varsity players were; David Laird with 669, Clark Bonneville with 601, Wyatt Miller coming in at 552 points, Cody Geil at 551 points, Sam Gingras at 495 points and Ben Zimmerman at 393.

Dixon Dukes Varsity Bowling Team