The Manhattan High bowling team competed in two home meets a week. Last Wednesday, they placed second as a team and Monday night they placed first. These two were the first meets back from a two week pause.

“Last week was… it was pretty hard on everyone’s morale because we just like… it was a mess because we hadn’t bowled together for a while,” senior Megan Whitson said. “But this week we really clicked as a team, so we worked well together this week.”

MHS competed in a quad at both meets. On Wednesday, MHS was against Emporia, Junction City and Washburn Rural, who ultimately ended up placing first. On Monday, MHS bowled against Hayden, Emporia and Washington. 

“We beat all of them, so that was a fun day,” Whitson said.

The week following the team’s pause was a bit rough though people were eager to get back into competing again. Working together caused some complications that were soon overcome this week.

“Working as a team didn’t go very well and just building each other up,” Whitson said. “There was a lot of negativity just cause it’s easy to get in your own head. So this week we did a lot better with, like, staying positive and keeping everyone’s morale up.”

The bowling meets are fairly restrictive when it comes to allowing spectators at the event. Because a bowling alley is smaller than a gym, the decision to allow spectators has been inconsistent. 

“This meet we were only allowed to have one spectator per family,” Whitson said. “The last one we were allowed to have two parents per senior and then the lower classmen weren’t allowed to have anybody.”

For many of the upperclassmen, having spectators at meets to encourage the bowlers helps their overall performance. Without as much encouragement, the bowlers feel as though every meet is just another practice.

“It definitely felt really weird the first meet cause we’re used to people cheering us on and stuff and so it just ended up feeling like a practice… like a really big practice,” Whitson said. “That definitely took down the competition.”

The team will compete again tomorrow at JC Bowl in Junction City and again on Monday at Little Apple Lanes.