Four teams from Black Diamond Lanes rolled to zone gold on Sunday and will now take aim at B.C. titles.
The Black Diamond senior girls, senior boys, junior girls and bantam girls all qualified for the Youth Bowling Canada provincial finals, March 5 in Kamloops and Chase.
The senior girls - Kassidy Johnson, Shae-Lynn Rafferty, Lezzyl Aquino and Paige Meise - were dominant in advancing to provincials. Their total of 3,743 placed them more than 1,000 pins ahead of their nearest rival, Hypertension Lanes of Dawson Creek. Of the 16 individual games the four Black Diamond members played, only one score was lower than 200 and Johnson had a high-single of 308.
The Black Diamond senior boys, meanwhile, held on for gold despite a furious charge from Rev Bowling Lanes of Quesnel. Black Diamond - formed by Alex Airey, Riley Markovics, Ryan Kennedy and Jordan Arnett - posted a winning total of 3,481. Rev, which was trailing by 120 pins going into the final game, made up the difference thanks in part to a 292 from Corbin Taylor and ended up with a total of 3,457 - just 24 off the pace. The Rev team, which also featured Ryley Dumaine, Kyle Palik and Brandon Harvey, still qualified for provincials.
Senior girls and senior boys competition was held at Nechako Lanes.
Meanwhile, at Black Diamond Lanes, the Black Diamond junior girls were right at home in putting up a winning score of 3,109. The team features Jadyn Arnett, Holly Thurston, Traci Rafferty and Jesslyn Arnett.
Black Diamond also hosted the bantam zone playdown. In that age group, the youngest in YBC, two-person teams competed and the Black Diamond pair of Kyra Thurston and Emma Ridley were victorious with a total of 1,288. In one of her games, Thurston rolled a 315.
The provincial championships will also have a singles division. Chiara Riise (Black Diamond Lanes, junior girls) and Ben Hendrickson (Nechako Lanes, senior boys) won zone titles earlier this season and will represent the region at the B.C. finals. Hendrickson is a first-year senior.
