Sophomore Imari Blond kept the girls bowling team’s six-year champions’ streak alive.

Out of 65 bowlers, Blond emerged on top of the field at an MHSAA Division 2 regional singles event for the second year in a row.

Blond said she had a couple of rough games and her confidence was dropping until she heard what her competition was throwing.

“I got news from my family that I was only down a few pins, so I pulled myself together,” Blond said.

She then recovered and struck out in the 10th frame to win by three pins, defeating senior Savannah Roemer of Gaylord.

The regional, Saturday, Feb. 24, was in Bay City, and Blond’s win kept the singles champion title at Kearsley since Kayla Emmendorfer won it in 2013. The Hornets did not have a regional champion in 2012, but Lindsay Ploof started the winning in 2011 with her singles title.

Winning a regional singles title seemed distant in the beginning of the year.

Blond had a slow start to her season. On the day of her birthday, the last practice before the first match, Blond broke her hand after falling down the stairs.

At first, Blond didn’t realize what this meant for her season.

“It hit me when I had to sit at every match and tournament,” Blond said. “I felt like I wasn’t helping the team, and that hurt me a lot.”

It was a challenge for Blond to recover and come back into the season.

“I didn’t bowl for so long (that) I forgot how to control my attitude,” Blond said.

But Blond overcame her injury and performed really well for her team.

She also improved her score from her 2017 win with a 1,203 total pinfall to 1,207 this year.

The last time a Hornet won the regional two years in a row was when alumna Hannah Ploof did it in 2015 and 2016.

Winning for the second time, Blond said it felt really good.

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In addition to Blond qualifying for the singles state final, four other Hornets made the cut, as well.

With the top 10 finishers of the singles regional moving on to the state final, five out of the six Hornets earned the top seven places.

Seniors Barbara Hawes, Emma Boychuk, Karlee Griffin, and junior Alexis Roof were the other four individual qualifiers for the state final.

Roof took a step back from 2017 when she placed second, as she qualified in third this year with a 1,166 game.

Hawes has had an impressive streak, making her way to the final for three years in a row.

She said in the beginning she struggled a bit, worrying about the fact that she has made it to the final every year on varsity.

“I still averaged a 190 for the day, so that was kind of cool,” Hawes said.

Hawes is thankful that she’s able to go into the singles final once again and have her “third shot at it.”

Hawes, who finished fifth in the regional, placed eighth in 2016, then moved up to fifth place in the 2017 regional.

This year, Hawes improved her score with a 1,141 game compared to 2017’s score of 1,057.

Blond, Roof, and Hawes also achieved All-State honors at 2017’s state championship.

Boychuk qualified her second year in a row making her way from seventh place in 2017 to sixth place this year, with a score of 1,113.

Griffin has also had a three-time qualifying streak since 2016. Griffin bounced around from sixth in 2016, to 10th place last year, and seventh place this year.

Griffin scored 1,097, which was better than her 2017 score of 1,035.

The five girls that qualified for the singles state final will be bowling for an individual state title on Saturday, March 3, at Super Bowl lanes in Canton.

Kearsley Regional Champions

• Imari Blond — 2018
• Imari Blond — 2017
• Hannah Ploof — 2016
• Hannah Ploof — 2015
• Anna Rutledge — 2014
• Kayla Emmendorfer — 2013
• Lindsay Ploof — 2011