Boys Bowling

Boys bowling: Saints look at positives after second straight state trip

During last weekend’s IHSA state finals at St. Clair Bowl in O’Fallon, many teams were able to produce strike after strike as well as pick up spares when needed, and that buried the Saints toward the back of the standings.

The Saints finished in 21st place out of 24 teams, despite averaging a 203.6, which wasn’t much lower than the 209.3 they averaged in last year’s finals when they brought home a third-place trophy.

Stevenson won the title with a 222.7 average, edging Rockton Hononegah by 40 pins.

“We have no excuses, but this is how I felt it went for our team,” Saints coach Steve Dessauer said. “Our team is really good at hitting their target and they were trying to find three- or four-inch boards, while many teams were able to find six to eight inches of play area. The pattern didn’t suit our players as well as the others, but I wouldn’t say we under produced, but some other people ran away with it.”

Junior Dean Mudlong advanced to Saturday’s individual finals and placed 13th while establishing a school-record average of 228.3 in the finals.

He bested the 226.2 Domenick Strauss averaged last year when he took fourth place.

“Teams were able to string a lot, so that was a big opposition to us,” Mudlong said. “We were still able to make spares, but we didn’t have as much room as the other teams with power players. The power players were able to throw the ball almost anywhere, so it came down to making shots and we were making our spares pretty good, but it wasn’t enough.”

Being the lone Saint to compete Saturday might have felt strange for Mudlong, whose high was a 276 in his second game of his final round, but it didn’t rattle him.

“I had my team to back me up on the lanes, cheering for me, which was nice of them,” he said. “I had put in a lot of work in the offseason to accomplish this, and one of my biggest goals was to get myself a record for the school, so that was a big accomplishment.”

Junior Kyle Middendorf and senior Cole Cartee were the two other Saints to roll in all six games Friday, averaging a 209.5 and 199.3, respectively. Middendorf added a high of 254. Sophomore Wes Cordray contributed in five games, averaging a 190.5, junior Andrew Culbertson also appeared in five games, averaging a 187, while freshman Aaron Cordray rolled a 207 and 203.

“It seemed like we handled it pretty well, but we just didn’t perform as well as we wanted,” Cartee said. “Once we realized we weren’t going to qualify for the second day we still had a lot of fun and we got to come back to cheer Dean on.”

This was the first appearance at state for half of the team and only Mudlong appeared in all 12 games last season. Cartee and Culbertson also competed at state last January.

“We’ve gone now two years in a row which is pretty unbelievable,” Dessauer said. “We’ve got a good coaching staff and had another quality year. Now we’ll look forward to doing something to increase ball speed and rev rate and try to get better.”

Cartee will be the lone loss to graduation, but his departure will be immense.

“He’s a solid leader through and through and he leads by example,” Dessauer said. “He made sure our expectations were met.”

Mudlong agrees.

“We do lose a big score and a good leader in Cole, but I feel we’ll be all right,” he said. “We’ll definitely miss him because he’s been a big part of this team, but we should hopefully be able to pick up and fill his shoes.”

Shoes that helped make history.

“I never could’ve imagined doing what we’ve done,” Cartee said. “Freshmen year we missed going to state by six pins but kept getting closer and closer and then finally got there last year and then did it again this year. I’m so happy of all the guys to make it to state two consecutive times.”

During last weekend’s IHSA state finals at St. Clair Bowl in O’Fallon, many teams were able to produce strike after strike as well as pick up spares when needed, and that buried the Saints toward the back of the standings.

The Saints finished in 21st place out of 24 teams, despite averaging a 203.6, which wasn’t much lower than the 209.3 they averaged in last year’s finals when they brought home a third-place trophy.

Stevenson won the title with a 222.7 average, edging Rockton Hononegah by 40 pins.

“We have no excuses, but this is how I felt it went for our team,” Saints coach Steve Dessauer said. “Our team is really good at hitting their target and they were trying to find three- or four-inch boards, while many teams were able to find six to eight inches of play area. The pattern didn’t suit our players as well as the others, but I wouldn’t say we under produced, but some other people ran away with it.”

Junior Dean Mudlong advanced to Saturday’s individual finals and placed 13th while establishing a school-record average of 228.3 in the finals.

He bested the 226.2 Domenick Strauss averaged last year when he took fourth place.

“Teams were able to string a lot, so that was a big opposition to us,” Mudlong said. “We were still able to make spares, but we didn’t have as much room as the other teams with power players. The power players were able to throw the ball almost anywhere, so it came down to making shots and we were making our spares pretty good, but it wasn’t enough.”

Being the lone Saint to compete Saturday might have felt strange for Mudlong, whose high was a 276 in his second game of his final round, but it didn’t rattle him.

“I had my team to back me up on the lanes, cheering for me, which was nice of them,” he said. “I had put in a lot of work in the offseason to accomplish this, and one of my biggest goals was to get myself a record for the school, so that was a big accomplishment.”

Junior Kyle Middendorf and senior Cole Cartee were the two other Saints to roll in all six games Friday, averaging a 209.5 and 199.3, respectively. Middendorf added a high of 254. Sophomore Wes Cordray contributed in five games, averaging a 190.5, junior Andrew Culbertson also appeared in five games, averaging a 187, while freshman Aaron Cordray rolled a 207 and 203.

“It seemed like we handled it pretty well, but we just didn’t perform as well as we wanted,” Cartee said. “Once we realized we weren’t going to qualify for the second day we still had a lot of fun and we got to come back to cheer Dean on.”

This was the first appearance at state for half of the team and only Mudlong appeared in all 12 games last season. Cartee and Culbertson also competed at state last January.

“We’ve gone now two years in a row which is pretty unbelievable,” Dessauer said. “We’ve got a good coaching staff and had another quality year. Now we’ll look forward to doing something to increase ball speed and rev rate and try to get better.”

Cartee will be the lone loss to graduation, but his departure will be immense.

“He’s a solid leader through and through and he leads by example,” Dessauer said. “He made sure our expectations were met.”

Mudlong agrees.

“We do lose a big score and a good leader in Cole, but I feel we’ll be all right,” he said. “We’ll definitely miss him because he’s been a big part of this team, but we should hopefully be able to pick up and fill his shoes.”

Shoes that helped make history.

“I never could’ve imagined doing what we’ve done,” Cartee said. “Freshmen year we missed going to state by six pins but kept getting closer and closer and then finally got there last year and then did it again this year. I’m so happy of all the guys to make it to state two consecutive times.”