Three of our London and area youth 10 pin bowlers will represent Southern Ontario at CTF Nationals in Winnipeg, MB in May!  The Ivan Nelson Memorial Youth Championship is an annual tournament in Mississauga which attracts approximately 250 youth from all over Southern Ontario.  These youth all compete for 8 spots (4 girls and 4 boys) on the Southern Ontario Team along with $200 in scholarship.  This year London and district took 3 of those 8 spots which says a lot about the caliber of our youth 10 pin bowlers.  Rebekah Loker (left) and Mykaela Mitchell (middle) bowl out of Bowlerama Royale in London and Brayden Vaughan (right) bowls out of Heritage Lanes in St. Thomas.

Left to right…Rebekah Loker, Mykaela Mitchell, Brayden Vaughan

Ivan Nelson Memorial Youth Championship Tournament Director and Southern Ontario Coach, Chris Woolcock is quoted as saying “I start out with 250 smiling faces and end up with only 8!.”  This tournament is one of the most prestigious for our Southern Ontario youth bowlers and the pressure is on to fight for the only 8 spots.  Day 1 is comprised of 6 games total.  Day 1 was bowled on a medium sport pattern (Montreal). Each division qualifies only 8 to move on the Day 2.

After the 1^st day London and District had the following bowlers qualify:

• Bantam Boys – Cole Sitzes – Bowlerama Royale qualifying 1^st overall with a total 1060 pins
• Bantam Girls – Sydney Fargnoli – Bowlerama Royale qualifying 5^th overall with a total 869 pins
• Junior Boys – Brayden Vaughan – Heritage Lanes qualifying 2^nd with 1114 pins
• Junior Boys – Dylan Scott – Bowlerama Royale qualifying 8^th with 1030 pins
• Junior Girls – Rebekah Loker – Bowlerama Royale qualifying 2^nd with 1067 pins
• Intermediate Girls – Mykaela Mitchell – Bowlerama Royale qualifying 6^th with 1023 pins
• Senior Girls – Ashley Quenneville – Bowlerama Royale qualifying 5^th with 1071 pins
• Senior Girls – Victoria Molto – Bowlerama Royale qualifying 7^th with 1024 pins

The goal the first day is to make top 8 and move on to the next day.  From there the competition starts all over and the bowlers bowl each of the other 7 bowlers in their division once.  A win will get them 2 points and based on how they score in their division per game they will get 8 points (for high score) and 1 point (for low score (possible 10 points per match).  The lane condition was a short sport pattern (Los Angeles).

We are so very proud of all of our London and District bowlers.  After a very tense and exciting final day we ended up with 3 of 8 Southern Ontario teammates from London and St. Thomas, Rebekah, Mykaela and Brayden:

2015 Southern Ontario Team

Seniors, Kenny Ho, Toronto & Miranda Panas, St. Catharines

Intermediates, Riley Pellerito, Windsor & Mykaela Mitchell, London

Juniors, Brayden Vaughan, St. Thomas & Rebekah Loker, Woodstock

Bantams, Wyatt Scott, Burlington & Sierra Baltzer, Windsor.

Coaches are Gus Badali & Chris Woolcock

Team Manager,  Laurie Gatto.

Cole Sitzes Bronze Medalist Bantam Division

As well, London and District boasts a silver medal in Senior Girls, Victoria Molto (Bowlerama Royale) and a bronze medal in Bantam Boys, Cole Sitzes, (Bowlerama Royale).

Victoria Molto Silver Medalist Senior Division

This is Brayden’s first National Competition as a Bantam Boy.  Rebekah has experience competing at the National level as the Bantam Girl member of the Southern Ontario team at YBC Nationals in 2012.  Mykaela has bowled for Youth Team Canada in 2013 winning an International bronze medal in trios in Puerto Rico, she is on the 2015 Canadian Youth Team, was the 2012 and 2010 National CTF Junior and Bantam Girl Champion for CTF as well as the 2012 YBC National Junior Girl Champion.

Great bowling to all of our competitors!

LET’S GO S.O.!!!