The Newton girls bowling team opens the season this afternoon at Marshalltown. This year’s Cardinal squad features last year’s lone state qualifier for Newton, Gabbie Humphrey. Humphrey is now a senior, and placed 26th out of the 32 bowlers at the Class 2A Girls State Bowling Tournament in Waterloo back in February. Humphrey collected 505 pins in her three game series, while the Individual State Champion from Decorah bowled a 693 series. Humphrey qualified for the last state bowling  tournament February 17th ,by placing fourth at the qualifying meet in Newton at Cardinal Lanes. It was her second state appearance, as she helped lead the Cardinals girls team to a third place finish in the state as a freshman. Her total pin count last season was 4,078 over 22 games played. Two other Newton girl bowlers who played at least 20 games last season are now seniors Kelly Holmes with 22 games played and 2,928 pins, and Aeris Archer with 20 games played and 2,785 pins. The Cardinal girl bowlers went 8-3 in duals last season, placed fourth in the Cardinal Invitational, 5th in the Two Rivers Conference Meet in Oskaloosa, and 3rd at the State Qualifying Meet at Cardinal Lanes.

This afternoon’s meet is at Wayward Social in Marshalltown at 3 p.m.