Newberry repeats Bowler of Year award
Competing in the Western Athletic Conference bowling has long been a strength for the Great Bend Lady Panthers and the 2026 campaign was no exception.
While most years have been hotly contested between Great Bend and rival Garden City, the 2026 season was a race against Dodge City.
At the end of the eight dual matches where teams compete in home-and-home meets, the Panthers won 89 of a possible 104 points while Dodge City was a distant second with 72 while Garden City placed third with 64. Liberal (16) and Hays (6) rounded out the team points.
The Lady Panthers have now won four consecutive conference championships and 10 overall since the sport became an official varsity level competition in 2007. Garden City is next with seven titles.
This year’s team was led by senior Zoey Mayberry, who repeated as WAC Bowler of the Year (See story below), and was one of four Panthers to earn either first or second team all-WAC.
“Zoey bowls 12 months a year and that’s where she gets her consistency,” Great Bend coach David Feldbauer said of his top performer. “She had a couple of ups and downs (shoulder injury near the end of junior year). She wore a brace after it was dislocated and it took some time to re-learn some techniques.”
Feldbauer said that each of his varsity bowlers improved their average per game score from the season before and that spare shooting was the biggest reason.
“We do almost exclusively spare shooting in practice,” Feldbauer said. “It’s a tried-and-true method that if you pick up spares, you’re going to have much better scores. The good bowlers get their share of strikes, but it is the spares that often make a difference in winning or losing.”
The elder Mayberry was joined on the first team all-WAC by her younger sister, Brooklyn (151.80) along with second- and third-place finishers Chloe Carr (171.16) and Morgan Schwaderer (167.04) of Garden City; Loucinda Meade of Hays (150.77) and Karley Webb of Dodge City (148.08).
Feldbauer was named Coach of the Year.
Great Bend’s Mayberry repeats WAC Bowler award
One way or another Zoey Mayberry was determined to make her senior season of bowling a memorable one for her and her Great Bend Lady Panther teammates.
They accomplished the first of several goals recently by winning the WAC team title while Mayberry was easily on her way to repeating as the WAC Bowler of the Year.
“I wasn’t sure early on how the season would go,” Mayberry said. “Rehab of the shoulder was pretty intense, and I had to re-learn how to bowl.”
There were days where the shoulder would ache or cause pain, and I thought I’d never get back to bowling good again,” Mayberry said. “I had to do a lot of stretching exercises, and then my average went down and I knew I had to continue to re-learn how to throw the ball.”
The biggest change came when she found a plastic ball to use, and it made all the difference in her scoring.
By the time the regular season concluded, she had seen an improvement in her per game average from 191.88 a year ago to 199.58 this season.
“When I changed there was not a single line without using it,” Mayberry said. “My grandpa threw a plastic ball, and I learned some new ways to throw it.”
One other alteration she made was looking at the dots on the lanes rather than arrows, which are closer to where the lane starts.
“I can get my ball to the right location much quicker, and it tracks better on the shot,” Mayberry said of the 14-pound ball that travels at about 15mph tow.
“I’m throwing more strikes and my scores started going up,” she said.
Her season-high series of 732 came in Garden City, and when she did that, she felt like she had found a new level of performance.
“It just showed that I had put in a lot of work and once I finally made the changes, I was able to take off and felt like I had accomplished something.”
Mayberry plans to continue bowling at Barton Community College in her hometown next year and hopes to pursue a degree in business and finance.
Western Athletic Conference
Girls Bowling 2026 Final Results
| SCHOOL | POINTS | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Great Bend | 89 |
| 2 | Dodge City | 72 |
| 3 | Garden City | 64 |
| 4 | Liberal | 16 |
| 5 | Hays | 6 |
All-WAC Selections
| FIRST TEAM | SCHOOL | AVG/GAME |
|---|---|---|
| Zoey Mayberry | Great Bend | 199.58 |
| Chloe Carr | Garden City | 171.16 |
| Morgan Schwaderer | Garden City | 167.04 |
| Brooklyn Mayberry | Great Bend | 151.80 |
| Loucinda Meade | Hays | 150.77 |
| Karley Webb | Dodge City | 148.08 |
| SECOND TEAM | SCHOOL | AVG/GAME |
|---|---|---|
| Summer Weil | Dodge City | 145.75 |
| Emeery Meza | Great Bend | 143.23 |
| Shannon Bitler | Dodge City | 143.00 |
| Brenda Ralios Ralios | Dodge City | 138.76 |
| Rebecca Davis | Liberal | 131.66 |
| Alejandra Ayala | Great Bend | 130.33 |
Coach of the Year: David Feldbauer, Great Bend
