Senior Hannah Ploof has managed to follow in her sister’s footsteps and clinch the MHSAA Division 2 individual state championship in bowling.

Two bowlers from Kearsley managed to make it into the top eight on Saturday, March 5, but senior Alexxa Flood was defeated by Wayland Union sophomore Sydney Urben by a mere two pins, 150-148.

Ploof was more fortunate when facing Urben and ended up winning the championship, with a final score of 385-336. The victory matched her sister Lindsey’s feat in 2011 when she won a state title by 24 pins.

After three previous years of making it to the final 16, this was her year. For her six qualifying games she averaged a whopping 218.

Ploof said that her key to success was to stop focusing on trying to win.

“I didn’t focus on winning when I was bowling,” Ploof said. “I just tried to keep the scores up and keep pushing.”

Going up against her first opponent in the top 16, Makayla Lancioni of South Lyon, she had more difficulty. After the first game of two, she was trailing Lancioni by 39 pins, she came back stronger in the second game to bowl a 224 and win, 383-353.

Ploof then went on to beat Jamie Beiler of Jackson and Kayla Wild of Tecumseh before facing Urben and, eventually, winning the whole thing.

This was her last time bowling as a Kearsley Hornet, and it was an emotional moment for both her and her family, especially after the team’s state championship won the day before.

“It was definitely sad to know that I will never bowl with my team again,” Ploof said. “But it was good to know that it ended like that.”

Ploof hopes that the bowling program at Kearsley continues to do well.

“If they keep doing what they did this year, they will have no trouble winning in the future,” Ploof said.

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