The Manhattan High School boys and girls bowling team finished Regionals with a surprising outcome: senior Jasmine Bridges qualified for State. The team competed on Friday, Feb. 25 against many Topeka teams at West Ridge Lanes, hosted by Washburn Rural.

For Bridges, qualifying for state was a shocking result of her seven games; three little and four big — little games get bowlers into bigger games.

“[I was very surprised, but excited at the same time,” Bridges said. “I thought I wouldn’t make it [that far] by myself because I thought I did horrible that day, but I guess I did [better than I thought].”

Even though the outcome of Regionals was unexpected for Bridges, this would not be her first time qualifying for State.

“I have made it to State all four of my years,” Bridges said. “For all the three other years I’ve been, I would say I did worse each time I went to state because of the competition getting harder each time.”

Since this is Bridges’ senior year, she had a goal to accomplish by the time she threw her last ball at Regionals.

“My goal in the game was to at least get over 200 points for the score [of each game],” Bridges said. “I did that for my first game, but [the points] in the other two [small games] didn’t really get up there as much [as I had hoped].”

Bridges was the only girl, let alone the only person on the MHS bowling team that made it to State, and that made her peers happier than ever.

“[My teammates] were very supportive,” Bridges said. “They were happy for me, and cheered me on.”