GREENFIELD — Tandess O’Neal may have hoped for better scores to wrap up her youth bowling career, but she couldn’t have picked a better place.
The Greenfield standout, and recent graduate of Greenfield-Central High School, is one of 560 bowlers in her age group, U18, competing this week in the 2021 Junior Gold Championships.
Strike Force Lanes, 1539 West Main Street, is one of six centers in the Indianapolis area hosting the national championships for youth bowlers, which began July 9 and wraps up Saturday with championship matches in eight (four girls, four boys) divisions at Expo Bowl in Indianapolis.
Division finals matches at Expo on Saturday will be televised and shown at a later date on the CBS Sports Network.
On Tuesday, O’Neal, who qualified for the event by finishing second in a local tournament in August, got to play one of her four qualifying rounds at her home away from home.
“It’s incredible,” O’Neal said. “I never thought we’d get to this point having (the Junior Gold) in Indy and I’d get the pleasure of bowling at my own center. It’s really fun and I’m glad to see (Strike Force Lanes owners) Rob and Linda Barnhart here. It’s nice to have my hometown people here.”
It’s the third time O’Neal, who will be continuing her bowling and education at Marian University beginning in the 2021-22 school year, has qualified for the national tournament.
She competed and placed 40th in the U15 division in 2018 in Dallas. She qualified for the U18 in Las Vegas last year, but the tournament was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
O’Neal began bowling as a fifth grader. By eighth grade, she had become the Indiana state champion, winning the middle school title. She helped lead her high school team to a third-place finish in the state tournament this past season.
“I’ve been bowling since fifth grade and I started at Strike Force Lane in the middle school program. I’ve grown up here,” O’Neal said.
Most recently, she won the Indiana Queens Tournament in May and followed it up by winning the Indiana-Kentucky All-Star Tournament last month. She was team captain for her state’s all-star team.
Those skills that have made her one of Indiana’s best were all honed here at her hometown bowling alley.
“This is probably my last tournament here. It’s bittersweet,” O’Neal said. “I know I’m moving on to bigger and better things, but it’s also sad knowing I’m not going to compete here again. Rob and Linda have been in my corner and Greenfield’s corner for so long and have always supported youth bowling. Whenever I am here they always say, ‘Hi’. They are always so friendly and they treat all of us really well.”
After Tuesday’s second round of qualifying, O’Neal was in the middle of the pack in the large U18 field.
She played Monday at Championship Lanes in Anderson and played her third round Wednesday and today’s fourth round at Woodland Bowl in Indianapolis.
In the U18 girls tournament, participants bowl four games each day (Monday-Thursday) in an attempt to be one of the top 80 to make Friday’s Advancers Round. Later on Friday, the group will get narrowed to a 16-player knockout bracket.
O’Neal is one of three Hancock County players bowling in various divisions. New Palestine’s Alyssa Cain and Greenfield’s Alyssa Cash are playing in the U15 girls tournament, which includes nearly 300 bowlers. All of their qualifying rounds took place in Indianapolis.
At her home facility on Tuesday, O’Neal got off to a slow start with games of 152 and 154. She finished much stronger with games of 175 and 181. She bowled a turkey in the final game with strikes in frames 5-7.
The biggest challenge for O’Neal, and her fellow competitors, is adjusting to the oil patterns for each lane.
Typically, centers have a “house pattern” designed to give the bowler a larger margin for error. Professional tournaments and larger events like this week’s Junior Gold, use a “sport pattern” designed to make it much harder to hit the pocket.
Zach Weidman, who runs the pro shop at Strike Force Lanes and is O’Neal’s coach, said the sport pattern can take 20-30 pins off a bowler’s average.
O’Neal, who averaged 219 during the high school season, admitted being a little frustrated with how her first two days went. She is hopeful the rest of the week will get better. On Wednesday, she had her best game of the tournament, rolling a 199.
She’s very perseverant. She doesn’t give up. Even if she has had a bad game, she keeps going,” Weidman said. “A lot of kids will get frustrated and give up. She doesn’t do that.”
“My one goal for this week was not to get too frustrated with myself,” O’Neal added on her tournament hopes. “I knew the first two days I’d struggle the most with the more difficult (sport) shots.
“I’m really happy with myself that I didn’t let my two 150-games get me down. We’re at the halfway mark, it’s only up from here.”
