SK’s Wells Clark Heads to Waterloo for Individual State Bowling Tournament

WATERLOO—On February 21, SK sophomore Wells Clark made the trip to Cadillac XBC in Waterloo for the Class 1A State Individual Tournament. Clark finished his day with a pin total of 518, and was unable to advance to the head to head brackets.

Clark spoke on the moment when he first secured the bid to the state tournament as, “I was excited, but I wasn't too excited because you get too excited, you can get over stressed.” 

He started his day off with a 150, before a 168 in the second game. He ended his day on a high note with a 200 in his final game. 

Clark spoke on the nerves that came with performing in this high level meet with, “I had my ups and downs, and could feel it was not going to be my best day. I wanted to represent my team and coaches by bowling well. Without them I wouldn't have been there. I was disappointed I wasn't doing better.”

When asked if he could feel a difference in these lanes compared to what he was used to at Keokuk County Bowl, Clark responded with, “The oil pattern was one I wasn't used to. After I ended the first game, I knew I couldn't finish as high as I hoped. I was there with the best bowlers in the state and to advance after the first game I would need to throw two near perfect games. So, I did relax some and it helped to have some teammates there making noise for me.”

Wells jokingly spoke on making it back to state next year with, “I am going to let the sophomores do it.”

Wells is the fifth SK bowler to ever qualify for state. All of those SK bowlers (Holden Huffman 2020, Brock Alderson 2022, Landyn Greiner 2023, Jayden Montgomery 2023), except Holden, were sophomores at the time. The team jokes that only sophomores can make state. This year's team had two freshman bowling varsity; Liam VanVoltenburg and Wells' younger brother Owen Clark. The team says that next year they will be the ones to qualify for state as sophomores.

The goal for next year is, “not really the score, but how consistent I am. I need to fix that,” explained Clark. 

The goal will start with, “What mark I hit because I am really inconsistent,” and extends to, “how to adjust to the different oil patterns at the different bowling centers.” These will be the foundation of the offseason adjustments that Clark will work on as he returns for his third season on the SK bowling team as a junior.