Consistency is key for Marshalltown boys bowling.

The Bobcats recovered from a slow start to the Baker round to line up a string of solid games guiding MHS to a victory over Fort Dodge at Wayward Social on Monday.

Marshalltown won with 2,737 pins to the Dodgers’ 2,623 and improved to 5-2 overall.

Jayden Beichley led the Bobcats with a 414 series, including a high-game of 243. Carter McCready added a 384 and Zach Morris rolled 363 with a 227 total in his first game. Cayden Slifer and Porter Niedermann rounded out the counting scores at 328 and 314 and Tucker Wedgwood contributed a non-scoring 278.

“We’re getting better at picking up spares, we’ve been really inconsistent in that department,” MHS head coach Nate Clark said. “We did pretty good picking those up tonight.”

Leading by 36 pins heading to the Baker games, Fort Dodge took a slim lead after the first game with a 185-pin opening salvo compared to just 147 for the Bobcats.

“My message to them before that second game was consistency,” Clark said. “We need to make sure we’re doing everything the right way and being as consistent as possible. Let’s get that lead back and get our foot on the gas.”

The boys responded with games of 192, 187, 192 and 216, stringing together plenty of strikes to keep the Dodgers at bay.

With a regular varsity bowler unavailable for Monday’s matchup, the Bobcats nonetheless found a way.

“You can see it in the Bakers where they got three, four, five strikes in a row, which they weren’t really doing much earlier this year,” Clark said. “They’re gelling well together.”

The Marshalltown girls’ best performance of the season wasn’t enough to topple a solid Fort Dodge squad, falling 2,297-2,158. The Bobcat girls dropped to 3-4 while the Dodgers climbed to 6-1.

Devin Peterson led the Bobcats with a 310 series, Sydney May added a 309 with a highgame of 177 and Camillya Thomas scored a 306. Ariana Villagomez and Kenedy Lammert rounded out the team scoring at 282 and 267 and Zhixuan Li contributed a non-scoring 211.

MHS girls coach Dustin Peterson said the Bobcats exceeded his goal for the girls of rolling a 2,147.

“Camillya had our first 300 of the year at our last meet and now we have three girls with 300 series tonight,” MHS girls coach Dustin Peterson said. “And we’ve got a few girls that are a few pins, a few spares away from being there too, so I was super happy to see that.”

The strong play continued into the Baker games, where the Bobcats shot at or above their average coming into the match, leading off with a 171.

While those scores tapered off to a 97 by round five, it was an encouraging round for the MHS girls building off their previous season-best score in a win against Waterloo East on Jan. 4.

“It would’ve been nice to come away with a win tonight, but at the same time, we’re hitting our goals,” Dustin Peterson said. “Now I know 2,200 is right around the corner, 2,300, 2,400. And this is where we were last year at this point when we had two really good senior bowlers.”