Great Bend senior leads Panthers to title
There are few things that Kaylin Wahlmeier has not accomplished in her four-year bowling career at Great Bend High School.
She’s won the Class 5-1A state individual title, accomplishing that in 2022.
She’s led her team to the Class 5-1A team championship, that occurring in 2023.
With the recently-completed regular season, Wahlmeier repeated her WAC Bowler of Year performance while leading her Lady Panthers to another team title. The Lady Panthers were dominant in the WAC double round-robin match format, winning 98 of a possible 104 points.
The Panthers easily out-pointed runner-up Garden City, which totaled 81, followed by Dodge City with 45, Liberal with 29 and Hays 7.
It’s been quite a ride on the lanes for Wahlmeier, her coach David Feldbauer and her teammates. She’s now looking for icing on the cake – the March 1 state tournament.
“I’d like to do it a second time,” Wahlmeier said of winning individual medalist honors at state.
In her four years on the lanes, Wahlmeier was third as a freshman in the all-WAC competition with a 188.67 average. In 2022, she finished second to Garden City’s Holly Bridges and then won back-to-back titles with averages of 207.08 and 202.13 to walk-off with the individual honor by an average of nearly 20 pins per game.
Feldbauer says his prize bowler has been one of the hardest workers he’s had in the program.
“It’s been really great to have her on the team,” said Feldbauer, voted the Coach of the Year for guiding the Panthers to another WAC crown. “We graduated a few key bowlers but came back strong.”
Feldbauer’s long-time philosophy has been to focus on picking up spares as most bowlers get more than their share of strikes.
“We spend the first part of practice doing nothing but shooting for spares,” Feldbauer said. “It helps keep their heads on straight when we are competing. I want them to be confident in every shot, whether its the strikes or any spares.”
With so much success, Feldbauer has tried to keep the mental pressure at a minimum for his team.
“I tell them that whatever happens is always in the past, move on, and remain confident in what you are doing,” Feldbauer said. “Sometimes I think they feel too much weight on their shoulders, and I want them to remain confident no matter what is happening.”
Feldbauer credits the consistency in the program to one of the team’s former coaches who works with the middle school program in Great Bend at Walnut Bowl.
“They run that program at the same time we run the high school program,” Feldbauer said. “The young bowlers can look at the high school practice, bowl a few games and build their games by watching the older kids. They come to us, and most are not new bowlers.”
As the bowling format has evolved through the years by adding in the Baker format and then expanding it from three to four games for regional and state (and now in regular season matches), Feldbauer sees depth as a key to a team’s success.
“You can’t just rely on one or two good bowlers like you could in the 10-Pin (American) format,” Feldbauer said. “We focus a lot on the Baker and try to get the best lineup possible. You’re going to have your best bowlers in the fourth-ninth frames and the fifth-tenth frames.”
Competing in the WAC against another strong program in Garden City, and often Dodge City, has helped prime the Panthers to compete in the 5-1A division.
“There’s a lot of good teams and bowlers in 5-1A, but certainly when we see some of the WAC teams, we know it is preparing us for the postseason,” Feldbauer said.
KAYLIN WAHLMEIER, GREAT BEND, SR.
2024 WAC GIRLS BOWLER OF THE YEAR
Kaylin Wahlmeier’s high school career has arrived at the 10th frame, and she has been a dominant force not only in the Western Athletic Conference, but also at the state level in Class 5-1A.
In her sophomore season, she won the state individual title and then followed that by leading her Panthers to the 2023 Class 5-1A team championship.
She’s been a two-time WAC Girls Bowler of the Year while also helping her team claim conference championships three of her four seasons (missing only in 2022 as a sophomore).
“There have been a lot of challenges, both physical and mental,” said Wahlmeier. “I think the thing that will be the most difficult is the feeling of leaving everybody (teammates, coaches) behind.”
For Wahlmeier, it has always been about helping the team’s accomplishments with her individual successes coming secondary.
“It’s important to me that we have good team chemistry and I try to lead my teammates that way,” Wahlmeier said. “If someone is struggling, I try to help pick them up and keep them positive. Momentum can swing both ways and I always want ours to be positive.”
Bowling in different establishments through the regular season also helps Wahlmeier when she arrives at a new set of lanes. Oil patterns can be different and present new challenges, she said.
“The key is to identify the oil pattern as fast as you can and then make the necessary adjustments,” Wahlmeier said. “If I do that, I can remain consistent and positive. It’s an area where we can all help each other in talking about what we need to change to be better.”
Wahlmeier’s bowling career is not quite over, as she will transition to the college ranks next year when she attends Newman University in Wichita. She signed an NCAA letter-of-intent last fall and plans to major in radiology.
“It’s been a lot of fun here at the high school level and now I”m looking ahead to see how I can compete at the college level,” Wahlmeier said.
Wahlmeier’s 202.13 average for the 24-game WAC schedule was nearly 21 pins per game ahead of teammate Zoey Mayberry, who averaged a second-best 183.33.
Garden City’s Hope Resendiz (182.20) and Kyleigh Whitehurst (181.66) were third and fourth, respectively. Rounding out the top six first teamers were Dodge City’s Taylor Lenz (180.70) and Great Bend teammate Emilee Nelson (166.76).
Second-team selections went to Brooklyn Mayberry of Great Bend (155.13), Addison Hartnett of Liberal (154.66), Kallie Messenger of Garden City (154.66), Paige Heine of Great Bend (152.42), Abby Boyer of Hays (142.17) and Jade Garcia of Garden City (134.66).
