1 Bulldog vs 3 Warriors

From the Desk of Riely Chin:

Even though the team fell short in Texas, we still had a bulldog battle in Las Vegas, NV. Freshman Vincent Luong and 23 other finalists from the 4 sections competed against each other on April 17th-19th. The week started with his practice session on Monday, Coach Preble and himself gameplan a strategy for the qualifying portion, and boy was it a good one! After the six games of qualifying, he qualified 4th with a 1293 total score with a 215.5 average. At the beginning of the block, he started with some bigger asymmetrical core bowling balls, Mindset and Obsession Solid. Once the lanes started to transition, he started to shape the ball a little more with a more responsive ball with the Balck Widow Hybrid and he never looked back. If you kept up with him throughout the week, you can tell he was very comfortable in that zone. The top 8 had a first-round bye, so Vincent was done for the day.

The next morning, he bowled against Nicholas Luther from Davenport. His game plan was similar to qualifying and it was all about surviving. Both Nicholas and Vincent had trouble with carry and shotmaking. Ultimately, Vincent prevailed with a 612 - 581 victory and moves on to face Kai Evans from Mount Mercy. During this match, he had the ball reaction he was looking for, it was all about execution. The match was close after the first two games, but Vincent came through with a 659 - 606 victory. With this victory, he moves on to the TV finals where 3 other Webber International Warriors will be waiting in the wing.

The day of the finals was an early morning one for our young bulldog, where he first faced the Qualifying leader Austin Grammer. The first time on TV is something no one can prepare you for, but we believe that Vincent handled the nerves pretty well. He had some adversity in the middle of the match, but he moves on to the finals against AJ Wolstenholme. Unfortunately for us, AJ's look was too much for Vincent and he comes up one win short to take home the trophy. However, we all are very proud and happy with his performance!

The TV finals were not live, it was a TV taping set for May 2nd, 2023 on CBS Sports Network. The bowling community gathered at the local Dog House Grill to watch the finals including the man of the hour, where he signed a few autographs!

Please see the articles from bowl.com - https://bowl.com/news/finalists-determined-at-2023-intercollegiate-singles-championships

View an interview with Vincent - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3asybhQpWA

Equipment used: Hammer Obsession Solid, Brunswick Mindset, Hammer Widow Hybrid 2.0

Thank you to our team sponsors; Brunswick and Vise.