The gold and purple banner will hang on the honour wall at Black Diamond Lanes.
Eventually it will be relocated to the east wall beside another national pennant won two years ago by a Black Diamond Lanes junior girls team of Lezzyl Aquino, Paige Meise, Megan Reimer and Kassidy Johnson who won it all in 2013.
And now, Jadyn Arnett's banner, one she captured a week ago in the bantam girls singles division at the national Youth Bowling Canada's (YBC) five-pin championship May 3 in Toronto, will also take its rightful place on the wall.
Arnett, 11, is still trying to soak it all in. It hasn't sunk in yet that she's a national champion.
"When I knew I had won, I was shocked," said Arnett, a Grade 5/6 student at Heritage elementary. "I was surprised I had won first. I was expecting to have a pretty good experience and expected to be in the top-five. On the Monday at the closing ceremonies, I was nervous, but I still managed to go on stage (to get the gold medal). Everybody was cheering and clapping."
During the three-day tournament from May 1 to 3, Arnett bowled a total of 21 games, winning 17 of them for a top average of 178.23 points to claim the gold medal. Her best game was a total of 265 on the second day of competition.
Kelli Ann Sheridan from Grand Falls - Windsor, Nfld., earned the silver medal, winning 15 of 26 games. Sheridan was tied with Northern Ontario's Felicity Eckensviller and Alberta's Natalya Langevin for second place and won the tie-breaking game with 224 points. Eckensviller tallied 216 points to claim the bronze medal. Langevin rolled a 164 in the tiebreaker.
The first day of competition featured six games, nine on the second day and five on the final day.
"I was happy with my scores and how it was going," said Arnett. "After the first two games everybody was 1-1. The competition was really good. I had to play the same person twice. On Saturday, it was basically the same. But on the third day I knew I had to pick it up and kept trying to win games."
Nerves also played a factor, although Arnett, who competed at nationals in 2014 as part of a Black Diamond bantam girls team, did her best to keep them under control.
"On the last day, I was calm and focused," she said. "I got a lot of spares and I was happy with the way I played most games. On the last game I was very nervous. The announcer said just bowl your best, this is your last game."
Arnett rolled a 199, compared to Eckensviller's score of 198 to earn the gold medal. That meant she avoided a roll-off between Eckensviller, Langevin and Sheridan.
"I didn't realize I had won the gold medal until my dad told me," said Arnett.
It was Arnett's last year competing in the bantam girls singles division. It was also the last time those in the bantam division will advance to the national championship.
Arnett won't rest on her laurels this summer though. She's keen to return to practice and try and qualify for nationals again in the junior girls division.
"Competing against other singles was the coolest experience," she said. "I'm going to keep trying to beat my highest score."
Arnett wasn't the only northern B.C. athlete to finish in the top-three at nationals.
Corbin Taylor of Rev Bowling Lanes in Quesnel won the silver medal in the junior boys singles division. He won 16 of 21 games for an average of 203.46 points.
