Norwalk senior Emerson Fels and sophomore Julia Palen both placed in the top 20 with improved scores at Thursday’s Class 2A Individual State Bowling Championships. The state meet was held at Maple Lanes in Waterloo.

Fels tied for 13th place out of 32 boys qualifiers, rolling a three-game series of 667 that left him just 28 pins shy of advancing to the top 8 bracket round. The Warriors’ first state bowling qualifier in 13 years, Fels started the day with an impressive 268 and followed with games of 193 and 206. He improved his series score by 87 pins from last week’s state qualifying meet at Newton.

Palen tied for 18th place out of 32 girls qualifiers with a three-game series of 511, an improvement of 40 pins from the state qualifying meet. Palen, the Warrior girls’ first-ever state bowling qualifier, rolled games of 160, 192 and 159.

Following a bracket-style tournament among Thursday’s top eight individuals, this year’s 2A champions are Kadence Hyde of Waterloo East and Trey VanWyk of Oskaloosa.