Duncan Lanes sent 20 youth bowlers to Splitsville Riverport in Richmond last weekend for the 2025 Youth Bowl Canada provincial championships.
Duncan's bowlers competed in three age groups to win the right to advance to the Canadian championships in Edmonton May 5-7.
The team's first medal came from Penelope Hawkes in the bantam girls division. Penelope had scores of 142, 106, 97, 149, 128 and 146 for a six game total of 768 to win the gold medal.
"It was a come from behind win moving from third to first in game four," said coach Bob Linde.
Ronin Frehlick was a medallist in the bantam boys division with an amazing turnaround in games five and six to leap onto the podium for the bronze. Ronin had scores of 155, 106, 128, 116, 229, and 185 for a 919 total.
"The 229 game was the second highest score of all competitors in the three age groups," Linde said.
Also from Duncan Lanes, Iris Tarasoff claimed the bronze in the junior girls division with scores of 177, 142, 139, 119, 121 and 126 for a total of 824.
"This was a first ever podium finish for her, just holding off teammate Lily Rayner whose best game of 160 had her four pins back of Iris in fourth," Linde said.
The senior boys division started off with a bang as Duncan's Alex Gammie strung the first nine strikes before losing out on the perfect game in the 10th frame. Even so, he claimed the high game of the tournament with a 275 score.
"Unfortunately Alex missed the podium by four pins," Linde noted. He had scores of 275,167,182, 223,136 and 176 for a total of 1,159.
Logan Melin claimed gold in the junior boys group but not without drama. Needing to throw two strikes in the final frame of game six to have a chance at gold, Melin came through with a double and an eight-count to force a roll-off with Justin Chen from Splitsville.
A nine-count on the last ball would have claimed the gold outright. The boys did a three-frame roll-off in stepladder fashion with Logan going first.
An unconverted split in the eighth left Melin behind as Chen spared eighth, ninth and struck in the 10th for a total of 58 pins.
Needing a big finish Melin had a strike in the ninth and a double in the 10th to tie at 58. With one ball remaining it was only a matter of keeping the shot on the lane and a nine-count was enough for a 67-58 win.
"Logan and Penelope are excited to represent B.C. in Edmonton for a chance at more gold in May," Linde said.
Also competing for Duncan at the championships:
Bantam boys: Bryden Rayner 619 total (fifth place), and Darreld Rayner 501 (eighth).
Junior Girls: Cassia Mattinson 718 total (sixth).
Junior Boys: Markus Lawrence 915 total (fifth), Axel Hawkes 906 (sixth), Nicholas Wang 876 (seventh) Robert Lazenby 858 (eighth), and Austin Stultz 596 (11th).
Senior girls: Danika Lazenby 882 (sixth), Rhiannon Riopka 749 (eighth) and Paige Novak 708 (ninth).
Senior Boys: Ethan Frehlick 999 (11th), Finnian Stiwich 882 (17th) and Jack Storie 794 (18th).
Next up for the Duncan squad will be the Canadian Tenpin Provincial Championships March 8 at McCurdy Lanes in Kelowna with the gold medallists representing B.C. at the nationals in Quebec May 15-18.
