Greater Trail 5-pin bowlers roll into Kamloops on the weekend for the 2016 Youth Bowl Canada provincial championship.
The tournament goes Saturday and will see close to 200 bowlers from six teams including Vancouver Island, Lower Mainland, Fraser Valley, Okanagan, BC North, and the Kootenays compete in the Bantam, Junior, and Senior division singles and team events.
In Bantam Boys, Trail’s Tyrell Hogg will represent Glenmerry Bowl in singles, while Kyle McInnes and Christopher Lemieux with coach Curtis Lemieux from Glenmerry Bowl compete in the Bantam Boys team event at the Bowlertime 5-Pin Centre.
Beaver Valley Lanes’ David Ritter qualified as the Kootenay region’s top bowler and will roll with BC’s best in Junior Boys, while Glenmerry Bowl’s team of Nicole Smith, Erika Kivi, Melina Lemieux, and Taylor Servatius compete in Junior Girls along with coach Jodi Lemieux. Smith and Servatius bowled on the 2015 junior gold-medal team and would like nothing more than to return to the Nationals again this year.
Returning to the provincials in Senior Boys is multi-medalist Jacob Plett who won silver in 2010 and bronze in 2011 as a member of the Junior team. Plett also took bronze in singles in 2012.
The Kootenay representative in the Senior Girls team also hails from Glenmerry Bowl with Maclean Keraiff, Eliza Dawson, Sydney Hunt, and Megan Fowler with Lori Fowler as coach. Keraiff and Dawson bowled to Junior gold last year with Servatius and Smith, and will look for Senior Gold this year.
At the completion of the provincial championship, the top 26 singles and team bowlers will be declared provincial champions and will advance to the Youth Bowl Canada National Championship in Calgary May 7-10.