Over 120 miles to the north of the Capital City lies an emerging dynasty in the high school bowling scene.
The Wayne girls bowling team has captured the state's first three Class B team titles after Tuesday's triumph.
On Wednesday, it was again the Blue Devils in the winner's circle, this time Jersi Jensen, who won the girls singles title at Sun Valley Lanes.
She beat top-seeded Winter Martin of Hastings 376-340.
Jensen has been part of all three Blue Devil team titles, and after finishing singles runner-up last season, she is the school's first singles champion.
“I learned to stay calm and do my best,” Jensen said. “If it doesn't work, it doesn't work. … I just learned to not get in my head, and if I do, shake it off and throw the next ball.”
But it was Jensen's semifinal match against teammate Nina Hammer that almost caused a 7-10 split for Wayne coach Josh Johnson.
Jensen and Hammer both threw their best games in the semifinal, and recorded the two highest scores among the eight-seeded bowlers. Jensen went on to win 384-366.
“It was great to see two of them in the bracket,” Johnson said. “When we found out they could match each other, that was a challenge. When they both won I thought, 'I'm going to take three, four or five frames and just sit back and let them bowl.'
"They know how to bowl. It's not their first time, but unfortunately I couldn't help myself. I had to go down there. You kind of look at them one at a time, each one of them. They are such great teammates of each other and so supportive of each other. I think they hated to see the other one lose more than themselves win.”
Jensen closed out every frame in Game 2 of the two-game series to score 199. But it was the dreaded 10 pin that stayed upright on eight of her 15 spares in the championship series.
“The 10 pin was pretty easy for me today,” Jensen said. “Last night (Tuesday) I got it a lot, too. I just came back and got it.”
Haylee Bates of Fremont earned the top seed and the Class A singles championship, winning 385-369 over Bellevue West's Carie Mascarello.
It was almost an all Fremont championship match, with Mascarello escaping the Tigers' Kayleigh McKenzie 331-330 in the semifinals.
McKenzie bowled the bracket's highest score in the quarterfinals with a 411-370 win over teammate and second seed Karina Capron.
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