Cedar Rapids bowling tournament a huge success

Editor's note: Lane Lafler is a director on the Cedar Rapids USBC Board.

By Lane Lafler, community contributor

CEDAR RAPIDS - The City Bowling Tournament concluded Feb. 20 and was a huge success.

This is the first year of the merged association, but the third year the men and women bowled at the same times and days. The tournament, held on the weekends, started on Jan. 9 and all rounds were bowled at Lancer Lanes.

There were 145 teams (116 open, 29 women), 333 doubles, 666 singles and 627 all events.

The honor scores were flying around just like the pins. For the open division, five 300 games (Adrian Arrington, Kirk Page, Jeremy McKeehan, Chad Phillips and Scott Long), two 299 games (Curtis Rogentien and Josh Kepler) and two 800 series (Ben Gralund for 803 and Kepler for 868). Kepler had games of 290, 299 and 279, which included 32 strikes.

The women proved they can make the pins fly around, as well. There were four games of 250-plus (Amada Legate 289, Kris Hobbs-Thompson 267, Lori Abben-Goodwin 264 and Mariah Early 258) and two 700 series (Legate 720 and Hobbs-Thompson 742).

It takes a lot of volunteers to run a smooth tournament. Local high schools and Mount Mercy University provided the scorers and the association provided the tournament officials, including a few who worked every weekend. This tournament really could not have been as successful without the Lancer Lanes staff, who are professional and fun.

As an association, we send thanks to all who were involved. The sponsors are a big help with providing additional cash for the prize fund, but most of all it is you, the bowler, who makes this tournament possible.

The annual tournament is held the same time every year with the entries available in October and due in by mid December. We are looking forward to next year and want to challenge all of the bowlers out there to put a team, doubles and singles together in order to increase the numbers of participants.

You will enjoy your experience, we promise.

Until then, keep the ball on the lane and all 10 pins in the pit.