No other team came close to Charles City at the Class 1A girls' bowling state qualifying meet on Feb. 12, but Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn took a step in the right direction.

Charles City won the automatic berth to the state team bowling tournament during the qualifying meet on Feb. 12 at Locomotion Lanes in Sanborn. The Comets finished the 15 Baker games with a total pin count of 2361. The Hawks finished second at 1938, which was one place higher than they placed in 2023.

Forest City finished third (1598) and North Iowa was fourth (1447). With only two bowlers, Pocahontas Area finished fifth (689).

MIKE PETERSEN/SENTINEL-NEWS

Senior Heather Elgersma was the No. 8 individual at the state qualifying meet held at Sanborn.

"The girls began with good scoring Baker games and they hung in the competition. They had some of their best Baker games of the season, but just did not get the spares or strikes to fall their way," said Hawk coach Julia Meyer.

All six of Charles City's bowlers finished among the Top 8 in the individual games. Two others who finished in the top spots were H-M-S's Heather Elgersma (No. 8) and Sophia Hagen, of North Iowa (No. 5).

Individual H-M-S scores were Elgersma 136-170-125, 431; Jordan Lux 146-116-160, 422; Keyanna Brower 147-116-136, 399; Lexi Croatt 96-142-129, 367; Annika Overmire 138-96-127, 361; and Lillian Van Loon 130-101-110, 341.

"I am so very proud of Heather and all the girls' efforts. They all showed improvement at the end of the season. That was great to see," Meyer said.

H-M-S will have to rebuild its girls' team in 2024-25, as Brower, Croatt, Elgersma and Overmire will be graduating.