When the final pins fell, the members of the Southwest Metro Bowling team didn’t immediately react as if they had just won a state championship. It wasn’t until the team was announced as the winner the five girls displayed the joy of a championship.
The five-member co-op Southwest Metro team defeated Rochester-Pine Island in the Bowling Proprietors’ Association of America Inc.’s four-game championship match, 772-688, Saturday, March 7, at Mermaid Entertainment Center’s bowling complex in Mounds View.
The team’s four game scores – 181, 204, 215 and 172 – were good enough to take three of the four games from Rochester-Pine Island. The team’s five members are junior Tatum Spangenberg and sophomore Harper Lauritzen of New Prague, junior Claire Voaklander of Waconia, sophomore Ava Hein of Jordan and Chanhassen’s Kelsey Kaufmann, a seventh-grader. They finished the regular season at 13-1, losing only to Farmington in their conference tournament a few weeks ago. The five girls would have enjoyed the opportunity to avenge the setback at the state competition, but they didn’t have that opportunity since Farmington is in a bracket of teams from a single community and the Southwest Metro team is in the bracket of multi-community teams.
Using the Baker system, where a team’s bowlers compete in two frames, the Southwest Metro team won all its matches. The team advanced from pool play undefeated. In bracket play, Southwest Metro...
To see more on this story pick up the March 12, 2026 print edition of The New Prague Times.