On Tuesday, Oct. 4, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas men’s bowling team showcased their season-long preparation and skill. They play every Tuesday and Thursday at Sawgrass Lanes in Coral Springs against six district teams. This week, their toughest competitor was Coral Springs Charter, who was in third place in the division, compared to MSD who was in first place. The MSD bowling team was looking to capitalize on their success so far and expand their lead. Under the supervision of Coach De’Erika Carter, the team looked like a well oiled machine.

In the previous week, MSD dominated against Piney Grove Academy on Thursday, Sept. 22, by a large margin. MSD was eager to come back, built on momentum.

The MSD bowling team features a roster of evenly balanced players. Senior Ryan Terpstra currently has the best average of 181.

In the day’s first game, they started off strong to get out to a commanding lead. Coral Springs Charter attempted to shorten the lead, but they came up short. MSD won the first game against Coral Springs Charter by 78 pins. The leaders of the first game were sophomore Vasean Fairnot, with a score of 198, and sophomore Vincent Ciullo, with a score of 192.

The team used this early momentum as they moved into the next game with high hopes.

The game started off strong with each player getting a strike in the first frame. They continued this success into the next frames.

Junior Collin Oliphant had a personal record in the game as he had eight strikes in ten frames to finish with a 221.

“Today was one of my best,” Oliphant said. “That was the highest score of the team”.

The next highest score was sophomore Vincent Ciullo who finished with a 202.

At the end of the second game MSD was up by 129, the highest lead of any of the other schools.

The third and final game was baker-style, where each player throws two frames to combine into one score. The beginning started strong with MSD getting some early strikes. Coral Springs faltered behind by having multiple open frames. At the end of the baker match, MSD won 163-154.

This brought their three game toal to 1852 pins, compared to Coral Springs Charters 1714 pins.

“We did really well, came out on top against Coral Springs Charter and we all came together as a team,” Fairnot said.

Senior Ryan Terpstra brought together the team as the only senior and served as a role model to the underclassmen. The team rallied around Ryan to ultimately win and they couldn’t be any prouder of their accomplishments.

“I did my best for what I could,” Terpstra said. “I feel like it was a good match, and in the end, we came out on top to be number one, clearly the greatest in the whole alley.”

The MSD team showed exemplary amounts of respect, teamwork and cooperation with the other teams and that even though they were towards the top of the standings, they were still humble.

In the end, the team came out victorious and are looking forward to the rest of the season to show the county and hopefully the state on what they can do. Their next match is Tuesday, Oct. 11, at 4 pm at Sawgrass Lanes.