The Manhattan High School bowling team had a positive turnout at one of their away games in Topeka. The Varsity Boys scored first overall, Varsity girls scored second overall and Junior Varsity boys scored second overall.

“[Freshman] Nick Murray got first place along with another one of our teammates from boys’ Varsity and then everyone else didn’t place but we still did really well,” senior Jasmine Bridges said.

Because of the few numbers that the team has, there is no J.V. girls team as only six girls tried out before winter break.

“I would [have] loved to see [more] students on the team,” head coach David Murph said. “We have two boys teams – Varsity and J.V. – and we just have one girls team because only six girls tried out, so they will be our Varsity team.”

The bowling team has a new coach in Murph this season, and he has very similar goals to what the athletes have for themselves.

“I would really love to see [the team] be very competitive in all of the tournaments and at some point make the state tournament qualify for the state tournament,” Murph said. “And then our other goal is for them to learn more about the sport and have fun and enjoy it.”

And at last week’s meet, the team did just that, getting high placements with competition from Shawnee Heights, Topeka West and Emporia.

“It was a pretty regular competition in terms of how tough our opponents were,” Bridges said. “It was better compared to the first meet we went to but it’s a good warm up for us.”

With 11 meets left in the season, the young bowling team has much time to grow and improve, learning many things as they compete.

“We could definitely use some more practice to work on things swinging-wise – like how accurate we are; sometimes our shots will be a really good ball and then another time we’ll pitch a bad ball,” Bridges said. “[We also could] help each other by cheering each other on and by encouraging each other.”

The MHS bowling team will host their next meet this Wednesday, Jan. 26, competing against Emporia, Washburn Rural and Junction City.