Alley Finale: Junior Gold Championships worth the trip for U12 bowlers

0
1724
Lindsay Greim, 12, gets ready to roll a ball during her match at Strike Force Lanes in Greenfield. The 2021 Junior Gold National Tournament was held during the week with the top bowlers from around the country in competition on Friday, July 16, 2021. (Tom Russo | Daily Reporter)

GREENFIELD — For the Greim Family of Poway, Calif., the trek to get to the United States Bowling Congress Junior Gold Championships sounds like a cover of an old Johnny Cash song.

I’ve Been Everywhere.

In fact, even when they arrived to Central Indiana to compete in the youth bowling national championships, mother, Marci Greim, was still having to be everywhere.

On Friday, Marci’s daughter, Lindsay Greim, was playing at Greenfield’s Strike Force Lanes as part of the U12 girls match-play bracket.

At the same time, in Indianapolis, her son, Zach, was knocking over pins in the U18 boys tournament at Western Bowl.

Coming into Friday’s bracket play, Zach — who is going to bowl in college this upcoming school year at Saint Ambrose, located in Davenport, Iowa — was ranked No. 2 among 1,169 in his age group. He had an average score of 219.77.

Lindsay was No. 3 among 93 bowlers in her division with an average of 165.9.

Not bad for two bowlers that were without a home bowling center for 14 months.

California bowling centers were shut down for the majority of the pandemic. According to Gene Kanak, from the USBC, the state has just recently reopened centers.

“Our bowling community, as a whole, was shut down,” Kanak said. “Kids haven’t been able to bowl in some areas of the country. Coming here, this is really the first competitive opportunity they’ve had in a larger scale event during that time frame.”

The Greims had to qualify for the tournament in Nevada and have had additional tourney prep at facilities in Arizona and Utah. Those were just the driving trips. Lindsay competed in Florida, Iowa and Texas to get ready for this week. Zach has bowled in 10 different states, taking advantage of the friendships and contacts he’s made during his previous years competing at Junior Gold.

“I’m proud of them. (California) bowling just reopened after 14 months,” Marci Greim said. “We had to travel to Arizona and Nevada just to practice. We’d fine tournaments and that would count as our practice.

“It has been really difficult. We thought we were losing our center (Mira Mesa Lanes in San Diego). We weren’t sure. They were going to auction off (everything) and then in the 11th hour someone came in and saved them. Almost all of the bowling alleys in our area have been closed permanently. We only have two left. If they hadn’t reopened, we were considering moving. My son is going to bowl collegiately and (Lindsay) wants to bowl collegiately. We can’t live somewhere where there is no bowling.”

Lindsay’s day at Strike Force Lanes ended a little sooner than she would’ve liked. She reached the Final Eight before being knocked out in the elimination round.

Still, it was a good tournament for the Greims.

“I’m grateful, because I’ve never done super well in a tournament like this. I’m proud of myself and at the same time disappointed,” Lindsay said. “Personally, I didn’t think I’d make it this far because I hadn’t practice as much as girls from other states.

“It’s been nice (that both Zach and I made it here), especially since we haven’t been able to bowl a lot in California.”

Even with the entire tournament in a central location, having two bowlers in different age groups made for a lot of traveling, but that is something the Greims are used to.

“Having two kids in this is a whole different level,” Marci said. “They have bowled in different centers at different locations and different times. I’ve driven 900 miles since we’ve been here and we haven’t been anywhere but the centers.”

Massingill tops U12 girls

Baylie Massingill from Troy, Ohio, earned the top seed and was one of three girls to advance to today’s TV finals (to be shown at a later date on the CBS Sports Network) at Expo Bowl.

Like Lindsay, her brother, Bryce, who is 16, was competing in the U18 tournament, but did not make it to the bracket round.

Baylie came into the bracket round seeded No. 4.

“I didn’t think I’d make it this far,” Baylie said. “This means everything.”

Massingill will be joined in the finals by Orlando’s Larielle Tharps, who she beat by two pins, 373-371, in their two-game match in the winner’s bracket final.

Massingill had her best game of the tournament, 232, on Friday.

Bella Castillo, of Odessa, Texas, advanced from the elimination round.

Quintero putting up big numbers for boys

On the boys side, Matteo Quintero, of Smyrna, Tenn., led the field.

He had a two-game match score of 472 in the semifinals which included a game where he had seven straight strikes.

Earlier in the week during qualifying rounds, he rolled a 278.

He will be joined in today’s finals with second-seed Anthony Swanson, of Des Plaines, Ill., and Kai Strothers, of Maplewood, N.J.

“I used to do karate, but after I broke my arm, I started bowling,” Quintero said. “A person saw me bowl and said, ‘This kid has a lot of potential.’

“From then on I started getting more into tournaments. The one thing I like about bowling is the competition and meeting new friends.”

Quintero led after each day of the four-day qualifying period. He opened the tournament with a four-game series score of 952 on Tuesday.