GMG senior bowler Jayden Beichley, center, pictured with his family earlier this month after his team, the Marshalltown Bobcats, were crowned Alliance conference champions. Beichley’s season with the Bobcats ended this past Monday, Feb. 16, when Marshalltown failed to qualify as a team for the state tournament. PHOTO COURTESY OF GMG SCHOOLS/FACEBOOK

MARSHALLTOWN – The Marshalltown boys’ bowling team suffered a power outage — both literally and figuratively.

But the Bobcats aren’t out of juice just yet.

Marshalltown had its streak of 11-straight trips to team state stopped on its home lanes Monday, Feb. 16, in the Class 3A district meet at Wayward Social, but the Bobcats will still be represented next week at Cadillac XBC in Waterloo.

Seniors Gage Grieves and Carter McCready both qualified individually to carry the Bobcats’ banner back to state.

This trip won’t feel the same, though.

Marshalltown finished third behind Waterloo West (3,351) and West Des Moines Valley (2,991) after posting its season-low total of 2,900. Ninety-one pins prevented the Bobcats from carrying their streak to a new state record of 12 years in a row, and that was hard to swallow.

“It’s kind of a bittersweet day,” said MHS head coach Nate Clark. “We ended our state record streak of 11 years in a row. Just a lot of things didn’t go our way today. A lot of missed spares, a lot of stopping and starting, we had to move because of broken-down lanes, but it’s the worst we shot all year and it just happens to be today.

“But we’re still proud of the two kids that did make it. They’re all here at 6 a.m. Monday through Friday every single day, so they all earned it.”

Only the top two teams from each of four state-qualifying meets across the state advance to the season-ending Bakers tournament, and the Bobcats weren’t one of them for the first time in a long time. Waterloo West ran away with the team title and also claimed three of the eight individual tickets as well.

MHS was comfortably ahead of Ames (2,800) in fourth, but just too far behind Valley to play catch-up.

Boy did the Bobcats try.

As Valley started falling back, Marshalltown began to surge. Baker games of 235 and 237 brought the Bobcats to within just 26 pins of the Tigers with two games remaining. A score of 151 in the 14th of 15 games was too devastating of a setback for Marshalltown to overcome.

“Honestly, I think they took it for granted,” Clark said of the streak. “They thought they had it in the bag before we even showed up, and we just didn’t execute a lot of things that we normally do.”

Clark said the team room was quiet after Baker play left the Bobcats on the outside looking in at state qualification, but the door was still ajar for individual advancement.

That’s where Grieves and McCready stepped forward, firing off three-straight games in the 200s to earn top-eight finishes.

Grieves rolled 218-237-215-670 for fifth place, while McCready charted 213-209-237-659 to claim seventh.

Grieves and McCready both bounced back from the team outcome with enough vigor to get the job done another way.

“Coming off the team thing, yeah it disappointing, but I knew we could bounce back,” said Grieves.

“For me, it was more just getting past the mental side of it, just trying to lock back in,” said McCready. “I would rather go as a team, you know? I think it would have been better for all of us because that was the goal coming into the year. We had a chance at state, we have a great team, we’re almost all seniors and we’ve been bowling together for three, four years.

“The goal was to win state. It was tough.”

McCready got off to a slower start in singles play, but his steady delivery kept him consistent through the games. Both bowlers topped out with a 237 game to help get them through to state.

“It feels good having all that hard work pay off finally,” said McCready.

The day was an unfortunate ending for three more seniors in Aiden Cowan, Porter Niedermann and GMG’s Jayden Beichley. Niedermann had the team’s top game of individual play and totaled 163-192-258-613. Cowan, a former state champion, opened singles play with a 247 game but couldn’t carry the momentum the rest of the way and rolled 247-170-159-576. Beichley finished with 182-180-160-522.

GMG junior Cayden Slifer scored 172-202-182-556 to set the table as the only returning varsity regular who will be back next season.

The day got off to a strange start for the bowlers, who had to wait out a two-hour power outage that affected Wayward Social and other surrounding houses and businesses. Marshalltown led after rolling a 235 in the first Baker game, but the lengthy lay-off required a restart for everyone and everything involved. The ‘Cats couldn’t keep their hometown momentum rolling and ran out of steam by the end of the day.

Grieves and McCready will continue along with the 3A state individual tournament, which is Monday, Feb. 23, at 9 a.m. in Waterloo.

“It’s a new thing,” Grieves said.

“A new opportunity,” McCready added. “Just try to give it a shot.”