T-R PHOTO BY JAKE RYDER - Grundy Center sophomore Britt Meyer competes in the Class 1A individual boys’ state bowling tournament on Wednesday at Cadillac XBC in Waterloo. Meyer rolled a 638 series in his state tournament debut, finishing 18th out of 32 bowlers.

WATERLOO — Wednesday could be just the beginning in a new era for Grundy Center bowling.

Spartan sophomore Britt Meyer rolled a 638 series in the Class 1A boys individual tournament at Cadillac XBC in Waterloo.

Meyer is the first state qualifier for Grundy Center since the program was restarted in late 2019.

“It feels good to be here,” Meyer said, “but I wish I had some of my friends with me.”

Meyer did not qualify for the 8-man head-to-head tournament for the state title, finishing 18th out of 32 bowlers competing on Wednesday, but didn’t dip below a 200 game all day, with games of 201, 212 and 225.

While some bowlers struggle to catch up with their game when switching lanes between games, Meyer said he didn’t have that problem.

“The oil was carrying down and it almost played to my advantage,” Meyer said. “I was able to just throw it at the pocket instead of having to rely on hooking it.”

Meyer played JV as a freshman with a 136 per-game average and increased to 197 in his first year of varsity.

“I was very proud of his composure today,” said Grundy Center co-coach Justin Beenken. “This was a tough field with a lot of good bowling, a lot of seniors, and he stepped up to the plate, had a couple bad breaks, but 638 as a sophomore is nothing to hang your head about.”

The cutoff for bracket play was 687 pins by Vinton-Shellsburg’s Vann Lessig, who went on to win the state title over Charles City’s Noah White.

Grundy Center was second at the state-qualifier earlier this month in Ames, around 250 pins shy of qualifying as a team.

“I hope this fires them up,” Meyer said. “It’s lonely here. … I hope there’s some more young people that will want to join as well.”

This is also the first full year of Grundy Center running a girls bowling team, and across the board, Beenken and co-coach Ethan Murrow expect bigger and better things with Meyer blazing the trail.

“We’re proud of everyone on both of our teams,” Murrow said, “and hopefully next year, we’re gonna have a lot more here. … I think it helps them that they can see now that it’s possible, that we’ve walked through the school [being sent off] to the state tournament like every other sport does and it encourages more boys and girls to come out.”