Liberal, Kan.—
After solidifying second in the Western Athletic Conference last week against Liberal, the Dodge City Red Demons were nipping at the heels of the leading Great Bend Panthers. Dodge City attempted to create an upset at the WAC bowling competition in Liberal on Thursday but the Panthers remained resilient. The Great Bend boys and girls both earned the WAC titles.Great Bend finished first after bowling its best set of Bakers this season. The Panthers’ Dakota Conaway took second individually bowling a 704 series. He also earned the boys WAC MVP award averaging a score of 217 per game on the season.
“It means everything to win it,” Conaway said. “We’ve been bowling for three years and this has been our goal the whole time. We ended up coming up short the last two years taking second so now we’re looking forward to going to Regionals and taking first there.”
The Dodge City boys earned second as a team. Its Dillon Woods bowled a 709 series and Kaden Herbert bowled a 675 to take first and third individually. Woods and Herbert also made the first team All-WAC roster. Herbert said the environment was the biggest challenge for him.
“It is a bit of a change because there are a lot more people here with all four schools here,” he said. “It’s a lot louder and sometimes they can mess with your head but we just try to let that go right by us.”
First team All-WAC also included Juan Ramirez from Garden City, Tanner Dalton from Dodge City, Eric Ruiz from Great Bend and Dakota Conaway from Great Bend.
The Lady Panthers also stole the WAC crown. Their Miranda Hejny earned first place bowling a 651 series. Garden City slipped into second, Dodge City fell to third and Liberal finished fourth. Dodge City’s Chantel Smith averaged 196.66 per game for the 2011-2012 season, earning both a first team All-WAC roster spot and girls WAC MVP. Great Bend will head into Regionals on top.
“We know we have a lot of expectations and stuff,” Hejny said. “We want to do our best and try to show up like we did today.”
While Dodge City will head to Wichita East’s homes lanes as the underdogs.
“I would say that we’re underdogs because we have a lot of younger girls that don’t have a lot of varsity experience,” Smith said. “We’ve shown that we can handle anybody if we are at our best.”
