The Austin High School bowling team opened the 2010 season Saturday, with matches at Nybo Lanes in Red Wing.

The Packers entered competition with two very experienced teams. The varsity team returned eight players from last year’s second-place conference team. The junior varsity, also second place finishers last year, returned three players. With four new players this year, the junior varsity will make a run at qualifying for the state junior varsity tournament for the second consecutive year.

The Packer varsity bowlers split the two matches of the day. The first match found Austin pitted against the Stewartville Tigers.

“Both teams seemed to experience the problems with inconsistency that opening-day competition brings,” Austin head coach Jim Juenger said. “Bowlers for both teams left a number of open frames in the match. Austin eventually prevailed, however, taking the match three games to two.”

The Packers claimed victory in the first two games of the match (156-149 and 182-179), lost the second two games (169-217 and 147-154). They recovered to win the deciding fifth game 168-134. Leading the way for Austin were Chance Felten and Matt Breitbarth (8-for-10), Kody Phillips (11-for-14) and Collin Bailey (4-for-4). Lauren Schabert and Cole Kroneman also contributed to the victory.

The second varsity match found Austin competing against Red Wing.

Frame fill rates for the match were almost identical. Red Wing prevailed in the match, however, due to some ill-timed misses by the Austin bowlers.

The Packers lost game one of the match 141-167. They recovered two win the next two games 192-177 and 158-147. Austin lost the last two games 139-170 and 171-182 to give Red Wing the match victory.

Chance Felten again led the Packers, going 8-for-10 on frame fills. Kody Phillips was next, shooting 11-for-14. Lauren Schabert followed with a 3-for-4 performance, with Cole Kroneman shooting 7-for-10 during the match. Collin Bailey, at 4-for-6, and Matt Breitbarth at 5-for-10, finished out the Austin effort.

Red Wing High School is the newest member to join the West Division of the Southeast Conference. The conference now has nine members — Austin, Byron, Hayfield, Pine Island, Red Wing, Rochester Century, Rochester John Marshall, Rochester Mayo and Stewartville.