BY BRENT MAYCOCK
KSHSAA COVERED
TOPEKA — The text Keaton Wahlmeier got from his mother in 2022 simply lit him up.
Unable to attend the Class 5-1A State Bowling meet in Wichita that year because he was sick, Wahlmeier had to wait by the phone to find out how his older sister, Kaylin, had performed. After anxiously waiting, he got the news.
“When my mom texted me and told me she won, I was so proud of her,” Wahlmeier said. “She was just a sophomore that year. I was so happy for her.”
Kaylin’s state title – not to mention the two straight Class 5A team championships she was a part of in 2023 and 2024 for Great Bend -- also set a goal in Keaton’s mind. Some day, he wanted to follow in her championship footsteps.
“I wanted to join her and do that,” he said.
Kaylin missed Tuesday’s Unified State Bowling Championships at West Ridge Lanes. There’s little doubt that when she got the news from her family that Keaton had indeed gotten his own bowling gold medal, her excitement level matched or exceeded Keaton’s when she won in 2022.
“I know she’ll be so happy for me,” he said. “This is just amazing.”
Wahlmeier teamed with juniors Zoey Mayberry and Xander Orth, sophomore Payton Edwards and freshman Kanyen Parr to lead Great Bend to a record-setting performance in capturing the Unified Bowling state championship.
Runner-up to Western Athletic Conference rival and defending state champion Garden City at last week’s regionals, Great Bend put everything together in a big way on Tuesday to run away with the state championship.
The Panthers rolled four games of 200 or better and finished with a 6-game Baker pin total of 1,110 – a total that eclipsed the previous state best total of 1,026 posted by Shawnee Mission East in 2022.
It was 165 pins better than runner-up Hays, which was second with a 945 total. Liberal made it a WAC sweep of the team trophies, taking third with a program-best 936 while defending champion Garden City gave the WAC the top four teams at the tourney, placing fourth with an 857.
Great Bend coach David Feldbauer is officially the best bowling coach in Kansas. After leading Great Bend's girls to a pair of 5A state bowling titles, he led the Panthers to the Unified championship.
“I knew we could be good, but we never bowled great together,” Feldbauer said. “Our highest score was at regionals, 870. I told them we missed our marks at regionals, so we worked on the fundamentals for a day. It worked out because these kids didn’t miss a mark today at all. The lanes were happy with them and the pins kept falling. Today, I didn’t have to coach a lot. I sat back, cheered them on, and they did the rest.”
Great Bend started slowly with a first-game 137 that had the Panthers tied for seventh, 37 pins behind Salina. But from that point on, nobody in the building came close to touching what the Panthers were doing.
Starting with a 212 second game, Great Bend took control of the meet. The Panthers followed with games of 216, 201 and 222 to lock up the title – no other team had one game higher than a 198 – before closing with a 122 to finish at 1,110.
“It was awesome to watch,” said Mayberry, who’s been a key figure on Great Bend’s back-to-back girls championship teams. “It was so great to see everybody be a part of it. We were dancing, having fun, striking and it was just awesome.”
Mayberry said each of her bowling championships – were special in their own rights.
“They’re totally different and it’s hard to compare them,” she said. “But I really do love unified bowling. It’s a whole different level seeing people come from everywhere with different disabilities whether they’re deaf, blind, have cerebral palsy, whatever it is. It is so awesome to see them all come together and have fun and work together. I just had a great time today with this team.”
Great Bend’s roster had plenty of sub-stories as well.
Parr is the cousin of former Panther standout Paige Wagner, who finished as the Class 5-1A runner-up in 2021, helping Great Bend to a runner-up team finish. Wagner won a national college championship at Wichita State University.
Edwards and Orth, meanwhile, joined the team for the first time this season with Orth only taking up the sport five months ago.
The pieces all fit together seamlessly on Tuesday.
“This one probably means a little bit more,” said Feldbauer, who coached the Panther girls to their back-to-back state titles in 2023 and 2024 and also was Kaylin’s head coach when she won her 5-1A title in 2022. “I just preached to the kids that we’re just going to have fun.
“(Keaton) has been bowling his whole life and came out here today and dominated the lanes," he said. "Kanyen -- Paige has dragged him out to bowl his entire life. For those two to come out here and have a trophy they can hold up themselves instead of watching their family members do it is amazing.
"And Xander just picked up the sport of bowling. He has one of the best attitudes and has treated all these kids with the most respect I’ve ever seen. And he comes out and dominates. I’m just so proud of all of them.”
“We just had such a great bond with each other,” Wahlmeier said. “We just wanted to combine our strength and power and just plow through those pins. It was pretty crazy. It was so amazing and I’d love to do it again, but I’m a senior.”
Hays qualified in the fifth position in the Eisenhower regional (823), 64 pins behind regional champion Garden City. The Indians used four games of 150 or better to claim the runner-up finish at state with a high game of 197.
Liberal had four games of 146 or better (high of 198) to claim third with a 936, 91 pins better than their regional total of 845 that had them fourth at the Eisenhower regional.
UNIFIED BOWLING STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS
TEAM SCORES--1—Great Bend 1,110; 2—Hays High 945; 3—Liberal 936; 4—Garden City 857; 5—Olathe West 855; 6—Topeka Seaman 841; 7—Salina 838; 8—Emporia 812; 9—Washburn Rural 786; 10—Blue Valley North 776; 11—Olathe Northwest 766; 12—KC Piper 751; 13—Basehor 718; 14—Blue Valley West 708; 15—Olathe East 705; 16—Tonganoxie 700; 17--SM Northwest 698; 18—SM East 672; 19—Junction City 655; 20—Lawrence Free State 623
