Submitted Photo Back row, left to right: coach Nathan Smith, Kyle Kreutzbender, Shawn Roberts, Wayne Roberts and coach Jamey Kragh. Front row, left to right: Tatum Lee, Peyton Beeter and Landon Olson.

Minot is quickly becoming North Dakota’s “Title Town,” and the most recent titles happened right here in the Magic City.

Minot Gold, one of two varsity bowling teams representing Minot High, won the varsity team championship and Peyton Beeter won the girls varsity individual title at the North Dakota Bowling State Championships, held last weekend at North Hill Bowl in Minot.

The Minot Maroon, Minot High’s other varsity squad, finished in third place after being defeated by Minot Gold.

“It’s been a hard year, but we’ve always had a good program,” said Minot High head coach Jeff Kragh. “We’ve only won the varsity side three times.”

Members of the Minot Gold team included Kyle Kreutzbender, Tatum Lee, Wayne Roberts, Shawn Roberts, Beeter and Landon Olson.

Kreutzbender and Lee both were named to the All-Conference First-Team and Beeter was named to the Second Team.

Minot Gold finished the regular season with a 15-5 record.

Minot Maroon team members were Mikayla Cool, Max Beeter, Johnathan DeCoteau, Wyatt DeCoteau, Harrison Schwartz and Zachai Mason.

Minot Maroon had a 7-13 record.

Beeter secured the No. 1 seed for the girls’ varsity step ladder by bowling a 728 series with individual games of 234, 227, 267. Once in the step ladder, she met Allie Salter from Bismarck-Mandan, who qualified fourth and advanced to the finals by defeating teammate Jasmyn Gildea 232-150 and Jordyn Atwood, from the Fargo-Moorhead-Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton co-op, 194-173. Beeter defeated Salter 199-180 in the finals for the singles championship.

“I knew I wanted to win, so I came in with a good mindset,” said Beeter, who also competed on the Minot Gold squad.

It was the second individual title for Beeter. She won her first in 2021.

Minot High’s Mikayla Cool just missed out on qualifying for the step ladder after bowling 235, 190 and 166 for a 591 series, which was 27 pins fewer than Salter’s 626.

On the boys’ side Minot High’s Kreutzbender reached the top rung of the step ladder and teammate Wayne Roberts qualified as the No. 2 seed. Kreutzbender led all qualifiers with a 750 series (247, 246, 257). Roberts finished qualifying with a 715 series (264, 258, 193). Bismarck-Mandan filled out the rest of the step ladder as Dawson Unrath bowled a 699 series (203, 249, 247) to earn the No. 3 seed. Portscheller entered the step ladder as the fourth and final seed by bowling a 672 (229, 205, 238).

Then, Portscheller got hot.

He opened the step ladder with a 99-point win over his teammate, 266-167, and followed that up with a 279-189 win over Minot High’s Roberts to advance to the final. In the closest match of the step ladder, Portscheller routed Kreutzbender 257-195 to win the boys’ varsity singles championship.

Kruetzbender finished the tournament in second place, while Roberts was third.

Minot High’s previous varsity titles came in 2012 and 2017.

The junior varsity program has won seven titles overall, the most recent coming in 2018. They also three-peated in 2009-11 and 2014-2016.

Jamey Kragh, who coached Minot Gold’s team during the tournament won an individual varsity title in 2017.

Other Minot High state champions include Dylan Lautanen (2015), Chuck Kanoy (2016), Zach Wilson (2018), Maya Bachmeier (2018) and Mikayla Cool (2022).