Trail’s Glenmerry Bowl youth teams rolled to a good showing at the Kootenay Zone championship in Cranbrook earlier this month and will put their best foot forward as they take to the lanes in Kelowna and Vernon this weekend for the youth bowling provincial championship.
The senior boys and the boys and girls combo team both won gold to qualify for the B.C. Championship at Lincoln Lanes in Vernon and the Capri Valley Lanes in Kelowna.
The senior boys made up of Devon Fulton, Cole Thatcher, Joshua Mack, and Gabby Moreau bowled their way to the top with a solid 3,111 point total, with Cranbrook close behind at 2,986.
Fulton led the way scoring a total of 980 through four matches, with a single-game high of 261.
The boys and girls combo team is comprised of bantam bowler Kiara Neufeld, junior five-pinner Trisha Hardt, and senior bowler Katy Fowler whose scores are based on how many pins they bowl over the team average. The trio buried the competition beating runner-up Cranbrook by over 100 pins.
Close to 300 athletes and coaches will attend the event, including Glenmerry Bowl’s single qualifiers Jacob Plett, Kennady Keraif, and Brice Paugh who won spots at the zones in December.
“All the singles and teams have all been settled, so we’re all ready for the provincials,” said Glenmerry Bowl’s Ron Sandnes. “We have a good contingent . . . Our (senior) boys compared to the other teams are very close, and I think they’ll have a chance at a medal for sure.”
The senior boys team won silver last year with Flack and Fulton the only boys from the team returning, while Plett picked up a bronze in singles and Keraif narrowly missed the podium with a fourth-place finish.
The Bantam boys team of Dylan Paugh, Izach Dawson, Ryan Clark, and Spencer Simister came oh so close to qualifying, winning silver at the event, while the bantam girls team of Megan Fowler, Erika Kivi, Maclean Keraiff, and Eliza Dawson captured bronze.
The top 30 athletes in the scratch events will be declared provincial champions and will advance to the national championship in Vancouver in May.