By: Jonathan Szczepaniak | St. Clair Shores Sentinel | Published January 6, 2025
ST. CLAIR SHORES — When asked if she could recall her first season on varsity in 2022, senior captain Avery Koebke’s memory was a little hazy.
Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that St. Clair Shores Lake Shore girls bowling graduated nine seniors going into the season and had only six girls in the entire program as another season in the Macomb Area Conference Red neared.
It was up to Koebke, senior captain Mariska Livingston, and junior Maura Turpin to replace a Shorians team who won regionals and qualified for a shot at the state title as an eight seed.
“We just got pounded in the MAC Red, but the thing was I told them that we were probably never winning a meet and we’ll be lucky to qualify in a tournament, but we’re going to learn,” Lake Shore head coach Greg Villasurda said. “We’re going to get better every day.”
Just a season after their 0-10 finish in the MAC Red, Koebke, Livingston and Turpin returned with a fire lit under them, and Lake Shore put on a show as it picked up three wins in league play while winning the regional championship and qualifying for states.
It’s exactly the kind of confidence boost the trio needed after enduring the trials and tribulations their first season of varsity bowling brought, but now there’s an expectation.
The Shorians qualifying for states was a significant step in the right direction, but missing the top-eight qualifying block for a shot at the state title by 35 pins put a pause on the celebration.
The excitement may have stalled but the motivation and hunger to get it back is at an all-time high.
“We are very eager to go back to states and regionals,” Livingston said. “We won regionals last year, which gave us a huge ego boost, and then states kind of knocked us down a few pegs. We’re very eager to get back and show what we can do.”
Returning two all-conference bowlers in Livingston and sophomore sensation Sara Augustitus — and two individual state qualifiers in Augustitus, who was also the individual regional champion, and Koebke — the Shorians had a solid foundation with Turpin, a veteran bowler, also returning.
The surprise of the season has been junior Teagan Klott, who came up from JV this season and has been a consistent contributor.
“She worked at it,” Villasurda said. “She was a girl that never bowled, and she walked in and had to learn last year. I’m sure there were some frustrating things, but she got better. She’s always been willing to learn. She’s a really smart girl.”
Lake Shore jumped out to a quick 2-0 league record behind a dominating performance from Augustitus, who rolled a 504 series, in its first league meet against Anchor Bay, but how about starting off the season with a tournament win to get the competitive juices flowing?
For the first time since 2019, Lake Shore brought home a tournament championship after placing first in the 2024 Richard Hochstein Memorial Invitational on Dec. 1 at Wonderland Lanes.
The Shorians followed up the team’s tournament success a week later as Augustitus fought through the L’Anse Creuse North Singles Invitational Dec. 8 at Imperial Lanes, taking down some of the top bowlers in the state in Utica-Eisenhower’s Hadley Clark and Ava Mazza before defeating Armada’s Reese Cecil 236-194.
Augustitus, a varsity softball player for the Shorians as well, is one of the premier bowlers in the sophomore class and has already made her mark on the juniors side of bowling.
“Sara is just a hard worker,” Villasurda said. “As much as she bowls, she has to be a hard worker. The difference between her freshman and sophomore year is her mental side of the game is getting better. She’s not frustrated when things don’t go her way, and that comes with getting older. She’s becoming more mature and getting better.”
Lake Shore’s biggest test of the season came in the Cougar Classic Invitational Dec. 14 at Imperial Lanes as Lake Shore battled all day to earn a runner-up finish, falling to Utica-Eisenhower, a unified team of Utica, the reigning MAC White champions, and Utica Eisenhower, the reigning MAC Red champions.
The Shorians went pin-for-pin with a team that’s penciled in as a state championship contender, and Augustitus, who placed 10th in the singles side of the tournament, said it showed the team their full capability.
“I think we were all confident, but we just needed to make more spares,” Augustitus said. “I think everyone was a little nervous, but I don’t think they couldn’t do it. I think they all knew we had a shot, but we just needed to make a couple more spares and we would’ve been right up there with them. They got some great players on that team, and I think it showed us what we’re capable of.”
Turpin also placed 14th in the singles side out of 83 bowlers.
Augustitus and company currently have Lake Shore 4-1 in the MAC White with an impressive track record on the tournament path, but had a slight hiccup against Roseville Dec. 18 in a 27-3 loss.
Sometimes, an early loss for a team riding high with all the confidence in the world might just be exactly what they needed.
“We came out very egotistical, like we thought we were something,” Livingston said. “Roseville definitely put us back in our place and reminded us that there are teams way better than us and we have to make sure we stay on our game and stay focused. We can’t win them all, and that’s perfectly OK, but this showed us that regionals are going to be hard because there are teams that are going to be strong.”
Lake Shore will have another shot at Roseville in its last league meet of the season, which could end up being a league-deciding matchup.
The goal is simple — competing at regionals and improving at states, especially on the individual side for Augustitus and Koebke, who placed 41st and 32nd, respectively, but the transformation of the program in just one season is something each bowler should be proud of.
There’s still work to be done, but Lake Shore bowling is back on track and ready to show Division 2 what it can bring.
“The difference is unbelievable,” Turpin said. “We’ve come a long way.”