Prairie girls' bowling eyes a state team berth

By Whitney Blakemore, The Gazette

CEDAR RAPIDS — The Cedar Rapids Prairie girls' bowling team is looking to make an impression this year.

'A big accomplishment for me would be to qualify for the state tournament, not only individually, but also as a team,' sophomore Rylee Blood said.

Blood leads the team with a 213.4 average, which ranks second in the state. She went to the state tournament last year individually, but Prairie hasn't qualified as a team since 2009.

'It's been four years for both boys and girls, and I just feel good about this one,' Coach Don Willfong said. 'We're working on the game so we can ... make other teams think about us.'

Willfong stresses key practice drills that can really make the difference in meets.

'We do a lot of drills working on spare shots, anything to focus on the spares,' he said. 'They are very critical.'

He believes making those spares is going to help his team Feb. 11 against Waterloo West. Prairie and West are tied for first in the Mississippi Valley Conference Valley Division with 6-0 records. Both are 6-1 overall.

'Waterloo West is going to be a tough match for us,' Willfong said. 'They are very close, but this year it is in their own court. We have to keep that in mind.

'But just looking at the numbers, I think my girls are capable of pulling it off.'

Senior Amanda Westemeier said the Hawks are working as a team.'We're putting our differences aside and actually coming together for the better of our team,' she said.