Something Sydney May said during Monday’s girls bowling state qualifier stuck with head coach Dustin Peterson.

“She said, ‘You know, I feel like this year has all just been leading up to next year for us,'” Peterson said. “‘Getting out of the shadows of last year’s team to be our own team.'”

Marshalltown girls bowling finished sixth in the team-qualifying round and didn’t get any individual qualifiers through from a 3A state-qualifying meet at Wayward Social, shut out of the state meet for this year.

With only one senior among the Bobcats’ six bowlers on Monday, next year is already looking promising.

“The youth that I have on this team, I thought they did a really good job and have great things to come,” Peterson said.

The morning started with 15 Baker games, with the top two teams among the eight in attendance qualifying for the state meet.

Marshalltown was fifth after the first set of five Bakers, which included their game-high of 177 that featured four strikes in a row, but dropped to sixth with a string of tough games in the next batch of five and couldn’t move up in the next round of five, finishing with a total of 2,075 pins that came in slightly above their average Baker score coming into the meet.

“I know that our girls can bowl better and I was hoping today was maybe one of those days where we could put it together and turn out a little bit higher,” Dustin said.

Ottumwa and Waterloo West qualified as teams with final totals of 2,946 and 2,456 pins, respectively.

After a long break, the girls then jumped into individual competition, a schedule that Dustin objects to.

“When we go to state, [team and individual] are on two separate days, so I think state-qualifying should be two days,” Peterson noted. “If we are going to do one day, I think individuals should be first because it gets everybody up and moving and gets everybody set for Bakers. … It’s tough for the girls to get back into it after the break.”

Several Marshalltown girls saw significant jumps from game one to game two of their individual series. Camillya Thomas was the individual leader for the Bobcats, as the sophomore followed a 126 in her first game with a 183 and 193 that were the best single-game performances from Marshalltown in the individual round.

However, her 502 total was short of the top-8 cutoff of 527 for individual qualifiers. Waterloo West’s Ainslee McConaughy was the individual champion at 610 pins.

“It’s hit and miss,” Peterson said. “Certain girls are getting better as the lanes break down and other girls fall apart when the lanes break down. … Camillya’s first game was not the one she wanted as she’s done a great job this last month, really working hard and to see her scores go up like that, it was good to see.”

Marshalltown’s junior class will have the opportunity to further make this team their own next winter.

“Our junior class, especially Sydney, has really stepped up this year taking a leadership role with this team,” Peterson said. “With her and Devin [Peterson], the two of them don’t just lead by example but through encouragement and just trying to build up the team. I’m looking forward to what comes next.”