Sectionals in Texas!

The Bulldogs travel to Dallas, TX to try to punch their tickets to Nationals!

Chris Preble

3/12/20242 min read

From the desk of Coach Preble,

This past weekend the Bulldogs traveled to Fort Worth, Texas for the 2024 Intercollegiate Singles and Team Qualifiers. The events started on Friday with the singles qualifier. On the Men's side, 203 players took to the lanes vying for the six qualifying spots available. Once again this year, the Bulldogs were led by Vincent Luong. Unfortunately this year Vincent finished 39th in the qualifier at 1285 (214 avg) unable to repeat his win of the qualifier from the 2023 event. Sophomore, Neil Weinstein, used a big last game (259) to finish 54th place with 1248 (208 avg).

On the Women's side, 149 players battled for five qualifying spots. Senior Nikki Samano, overcame a slow start to put herself in contention with one game to go. Unfortunately, the breaks didn't go Nikki's way as she settled in 19th place with a score of 1246 (207 avg).

The team portion of the weekend began Saturday morning and consisted of 32 baker format games. The Bulldogs entered the qualifier ranked 39th in the nation and were the 10th seed of the 21 teams invited to the Fort Worth sectional. After an up and down 1st block, the Dogs found themselves sitting in 9th place, 101 pins out of 4th place; the last qualifying position for the National Championships next month in Louisville, Kentucky. The Bulldogs came back strong after the lunch break and at first days end, they found themselves in 8th place only 55 pins out the cut.

On Sunday, we knew we had some ground to make up. In the morning block, the team put together their strongest block of the weekend and, as a result, they found themselves in 5th place, 85 pins away from advancing to nationals with one qualifying round to go.

After a rough start to the final qualifying block and seeing the teams in front of us pulling away, we felt we were in a go or die position and made an aggressive alignment move that simply didn't workout. Ultimately, the Bulldogs finished in 9th place.

This event is a special brand of torture and takes just about everything you've got. After we challenged the team to recommit to one another going into Sunday, they brought it strong as it should be. We know they're hurting but, they can't be disappointed with the effort they put forth.

Equipment in play at the Fort Worth Sectional....

Spencer Norvell- Hammer 3.0, Brunswick Knockout, Brunswick Quantum Evo Response, Hammer Purple Urethane and Columbia Eruption.

Max Leval- Brunswick Mindset, Brunswick Knockout and Hammer Purple Urethane.

Neil Weinstein- Brunswick Mindset, Brunswick Teal Rhino Pro, Hammer Purple Urethane and Brunswick Quantum Evo Response.

Clarissa Samano- Brunswick Mindset, Hammer Purple Urethane and Hammer Ghost

Vincent Luong- Brunswick Mindset, Hammer Obsession Tour, Dv8 Damn Good Verge Solid and Track Sensor

Nolan Byers- Brunswick Mindset, Radical Double Cross and Dv8 Trouble Maker

Once again, great support from our club parents both near and far.......Jason and Terry Weinstein, Steven and Tina Norvell, Pamela Norvell, Cindy Szeto and Andy Luong were pulling for us all weekend.

As always, we couldn’t do this without our sponsors, The Brunswick Corporation, Genesis Bowling and Vise Incorporated.

Go Bulldogs! #bebold

Coach Preble