FF Youth Bowler’s Have Success at State Tournaments
It’s tournament time for youth bowling across Minnesota. Two State Tournaments were held in Arden Hills at Flaherty’s over the weekend. 575 youth bowlers competed in the Storm Youth Championships and Pepsi Youth Championship tournaments. Storm is a handicap based of average tournament where Pepsi uses your scratch score.
Northern Aire Lanes sent 12 bowlers to the Storm Youth Bowling State Championships. Fergus bowlers put on a great performance with 2 State Champions, 2 second place finishers and 8 of the 12 finishing in the top 10 of their division.
Weston Riemer claimed the top spot in the Boys U10 Division where he topped 31 other bowlers. Weston had a 530 scratch series with a high game of 221. Adding on his handicap that’s based off his 123 average, he ended up with a 751 series and a State Championship! Matthew Karlgaard finished in the top half of the same division with a 13th place finish. Matthew’s highest game was a 128 and a total series of 652.
In the girls U15 division, Northern Aire Lanes’ bowlers claimed the top 2 spots in the field of 22. Maddie Price took the State Championship with a 1476 series over the 6 game set. Maddie started out strong with a 245 game and rolled 2 more games over the 200 mark. All six games over her 151 league average. Kendall Sundby rolled over her average all six games also for a 2nd place finish behind Maddie. Kendall had a high game of 191 and finished the 6 game set with a 1386.
L-R: Maddie Price, Kendall Sundby, Henry Fuder, Tate Loeffler, Weston Riemer
Fergus had 3 bowlers in the Storm U12 division, all of which made the top 10. Henry Fuder was just 6 pins shy of the title with a 728 series. Henry rolled a 146, 167, and 181 for 2nd place. Tucker Scheer with a high game of 179 finished 5th out of 40 bowlers in their field. Tate Loeffler rounded out the top 10 with a score of 656 and a high game of 195.
Miles Hoyer had a great finish to his first season of youth bowling. He finished 5th in the boys U15. Miles was above his average all six games with a high game of 162. Walter Nebbeling finished 25 in a field of 54 bowlers. Walter had a 1277 series with a high game of 196. Ethan Schwartz came in 6th in the highly competitive boys U18 division. Ethan rolled four of six games over 200 and had a series of 1419. Bryndle Riemer finished 11th in the Girls U8 division with a 586 series and a high game of 105. In the Girls U18 division, Kendra Koep finished right in the middle of of the field with a 1265 series and two games just shy of the 200 mark.
Five Northern Aire Lanes bowlers advanced from the district level to compete in the Pepsi State Championships. Pepsi is the scratch tournament meaning no handicap pins added to their final score. Tate Loeffler was NAL’s top finisher with a 2nd place finish in the boys U12 division. Tate rolled a 604 series with games of 173, 223, and 208. There were 37 bowlers in the U12 boys division where the champion advances to the Jr Gold Nationals.
Drew Loeffler had a 5th place finish in the girls U10 division, just one spot away from a scholarship cut. Drew’s high game was 151 finishing with a 384 series. Maddie Price rolled 12 games over the weekend as she competed in both the Storm and Pepsi tournaments. Maddie had a slow start for Pepsi, but 5 strong games following gave her an 8th place finish on the Pepsi side. Liam Jensen finished in 13th place which was in the top half of the boys U10 division. Liam had a very consistent day rolling games of 129, 131, and 125. Kyle Korby was rolling in the boys U15 field of over 50 bowlers. Kyle finished in 20th spot with a six game set of 1139.
Top finishers in each of these tournaments earn their share of over $15,000 in scholarships. Youth bowling across the country gives bowlers opportunities to earn scholarship money for future education. Scholarships are held in the SMART fund of the United States Bowling Congress until the youth graduate from high school. Sixteen Fergus Falls Youth bowlers will also be competing at the Bowlifi MN Singles State tournament May 17-19th in Bloomington. Bowlifi MN Singles is similar to the Storm tournament but it’s divisions are based on bowlers’ averages instead of just age.
