COLUMBUS — There was a slow start and a bad finish, but there was a lot of good happening in the middle of it all for Pleasant.
In their fifth straight trip to the Division II boys bowling state tournament at HP Lanes in Columbus Friday, Feb. 27, the Spartans finished 11th out of 16 teams and failed to make the eight-team bracketed finals for the team championship. However, they were just 42 pins away from advancing with their final total of 3,536.
"If you would have told me after one of our worst games of the season in Game 1, shooting a (778), that at the end of the day we would have had a chance for the top eight, I would have told you, ‘Yeah right,'" Pleasant coach Bill Ludwig said.
The first regulation qualifying game saw the Spartans sitting 14th, 93 pins from the cut line. However, they didn't get demoralized. They answered in the second game with a 907 to bump up to 11th, then threw a 988 to climb into seventh place at 2,693.
"These kids fight. They pick each other up. They go for it. I can’t be more proud," Ludwig said.
The Spartans were in a logjam with Versailles, Heath, Fort Recovery, St. Henry and Westfall as just 61 pins separated sixth to 11th entering the five qualifying Baker games. Pleasant then fired the best Baker game of the day among the 16 teams, shooting a 244 to start the round.
They followed that game with a solid 181 and a respectable 160, but Pleasant could not keep its momentum. The team shot a 141 and a 117 to finish the day.
"I know they are upset with themselves, and they are going to put more pressure on themselves than I ever did. I know a lot of them are really upset about how we finished," Ludwig said. "We had two games to go, and we were still in the hunt. We just didn’t take care of business in the last two (Baker) games. That’s on us. We were missing spares. We had a couple gutter balls."
Ludwig felt the team's lack of big-match experience showed down the stretch. Outside of juniors' Tucker Ludwig and Bryan Brandt, who were key members of the 2024 state championship team and 2025 state runner-up squad, this was new territory for the rest.
"Basically five of the seven kids had never been here," he said. "States is a completely, completely different atmosphere. You can’t teach the nerves that you get at this level. That’s the hard part. There were a lot of inner demons with the kids today by getting nervous and the loss of grip pressure or over-squeezing it. In bowling you have to bowl relaxed."
Tucker Ludwig makes All-Ohio again
Tucker Ludwig became a two-time second-team All-Ohioan by finishing ninth with a 198-259-198 series for a 655. As a freshman, he was also ninth at 257-200-179 636.
"It feels the same as I did it the first year," he said of his top 10 finish. "Not very tough, I just couldn’t carry anything. It was a lot of 10-pins and a lot of 7-pins and splitting a lot, too. I knew what I had to do, and I just couldn’t carry."
Brandt shook off a 146 first game to roll a 224 and 226 to rally for a 19th at 596.
"It wasn’t hard. I’m just not a good house-shot bowler," Brandt said.
Maysen Graber had a 428 series, while Tanner Weir had a 209 in the first game and Jay Jay Howard shot a 162 and a 163 in the second and third games, while Ryen Wansik threw a 236 in the third game. Declan Kirtley also worked in shots as a sub.
Mount Gilead's Mason Hupfer also bowls
Sophomore Mason Hupfer of Mount Gilead made his state tournament debut.
"The practice yesterday definitely helped. Some of those shots were perfect, especially in the last game. I had a lot of really good shots, but 7s, 10s, 4s just didn’t fall," he said.
Competing on the same lanes as Pleasant in the first three qualifying games, Hupfer shot a 170 in the first game, then answered with a 218 and 189 to end with a 577 to place 31st.
"I would say before the first game I was a little nervous," he said. "Pleasant is a great team, and I know how they play by being with them in the tournaments. They push the oil everywhere, so it was a little nerve-wracking because I didn’t know how my (bowling) balls were going to work. In the end, it worked out good."
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Marion-area swimmers compete at state
Two Marion-area high school swimmers competed in the Division II preliminaries at the state swimming championships Feb. 26 in Canton's C.T. Branin Natatorium.
Neither River Valley's Braden LeVois nor Mount Gilead's Abigail Griffith qualified for the state finals set for Feb. 27.
LeVois, a junior making his first state appearance, was 30th in the boys 100-yard backstroke with a time of 56.55 seconds. He was 31st in the 500-yard freestyle in 5 minutes, 8.53 seconds.
Griffith, also a junior making her state debut, was 31st in the girls 500 free in 5:45.13.
This article originally appeared on Marion Star: Pleasant, Hupfer bowl in the 2026 OHSAA D-II boys state tournament