The Bobcat girls won by a 2,367-1,733 margin over the Dodgers; the MHS boys scored 2,743 to Fort Dodge’s 2,558.

Boys head coach Nathan Clark described Tuesday’s win as “back to reality” after scoring just 2,258 pins against Waterloo East last week.

“We missed 78 spares last week and probably shot the lowest score I’ve ever seen for the boys,” Clark said. “Our goal was to go out and pick up spares and we took a step forward in terms of converting those.”

Gage Grieves had the high series with a 451, which included the Bobcats’ high game at a 236. Jayden Beichley rolled a 419 series, Cayden Slifer and Korben McKibben each rolled 378s and Carter McCready had the final counting score at 311. Porter Niedermann contributed a 310.

T-R PHOTO BY JAKE RYDER - Marshalltown senior Devin Peterson celebrates during Tuesday’s bowling meet against Fort Dodge at Wayward Social. Peterson posted the top score for the Bobcat girls in their win.

Clark said everyone’s individual series was about 100 pins better from last week, and the Bobcats were more than 200 pins ahead of Fort Dodge going to the Baker games.

The Dodgers came out firing with a 237 in their first Baker game but couldn’t sustain that average, only making up 40 pins from their deficit in the final rolls.

“It was nice to be somewhere closer to where we should be,” Clark said. “I thought we got complacent in the Bakers knowing we were up so big. … We’ve got to work on those Bakers moving forward, but we took care of business tonight.”

Devin Peterson led the Bobcat girls with a 349 series, including a high game of 178. Ariana Villagomez had a 316 series with a 176 opening game, Camillya Thomas came in at 299, Kenedy Lammert at 289, and Sydney May rolling a 283. Delaney Legg chipped in a 196.

The Bobcat girls were also coming off a loss to Waterloo East last week.

“Last week was rough, and I let the girls know,” girls coach Dustin Peterson said. “I was really happy with how they responded – over Thanksgiving break, almost every single girl was out doing something on the lanes. So they’re putting in the time and effort and so I’m not surprised that we had these scores today, and I’m happy the effort is starting to show.”

The girls didn’t let off the gas in the Baker games, scoring no worse than 140 with a high game of 197.

“The nice thing is we have the pieces this year where it could be anyone in that five spot [for Bakers],” Peterson said. “Could be Devin, Sydney, Cam, and the way Kenedy bowled today, it could be her, too. Really happy with the girls’ performance today.”

MHS hits the road to Ottumwa next Tuesday.