Greg Eveneshen ended his Special Olympics BC Summer Games 10-pin bowling tournament on a hot streak.
In the 10th and final frame he nailed down a spare which gave him one bonus throw and he made that count, scattering all 10 pins for a strike. His Prince George teammates let him know they liked what they just saw, erupting in a big cheer with some high fives.
It was a memorable moment, one of many magical memories for Eveneshen and his teammates, Greg Cole, Michael Harris and Carol West, among three local teams entered in the two-day tournament at Strike Zone Bowling.
Linda Renner has climbed to the top in Special Olympics and won two gold and a silver in at the World Summer Games in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates in 2019 and a World Games silver in Los Angeles in 2015. But she had a tough day at the lanes Saturday, just missing out on a bunch of strikes and spares.
“You don’t want to know how many nines we got,” laughed Renner. “There were a lot of nines the first game, a lot of eights and nines the second game, but the third game we picked up speed because we got two spares.
“But my scores were over (her average). I’ll take it. The host team rocked, right coach?”
Renner averages 112 in Saturday morning practices at Strike Zone but scored higher than that in her first three games Friday, including a game-high 151.
“This past weekend has been so much fun for our athletes — we’ve seen a lot of close games and we’ve seen some really good bowling here,” said Cariboo-North East coach Tracy Cole.
“The athletes have just stepped up and done a tremendous job, I’m proud of them. This last game, it’s always tough when you’re the home team but our bowlers pulled it off. Our team total was 1,648, I’m very happy with that.”
West finished the day Saturday with a three-game total of 452, one better than her teammate Harris, and she won gold in the Division 2 women’s individual class with a six-game score of 805.
“I liked just being here with everyone and having fun and bowling,” said West. “There was a bit of pressure on us but not bad.”
Harris also qualified for the BC Summer Games in golf, but he picked bowling.
“Michael has been doing it for a long time, he made it to nationals a few years back and they were in P.E.I.,” said Patricia Harris, Michael’s mother. “So it’s a nice thing because they get to travel and they make new friends at the Games, so it’s a good experience for them overall for them to travel and see new things.”
All 12 bowlers who competed for Region 8 on three teams are from Prince George.
“They all played well and they’re so supportive of each other," said Patricia Harris. “There’s such a camaraderie between them, there’s no jealousy or fighting, they’re all buddies and they cheer each other on.”
The 900 Summer Games athletes slept overnight in Prince George high school classrooms. Renner said it was tough to get some shuteye and was looking forward to sleeping in her own bed after the dance Saturday night.
“If you were on the floor it doesn’t help,” she said. “Let’s just put it this way, we had a snoring person at one end and another snoring person at the other end. I’d hear snore-snore on one side and snore-snore on the other and that’s it, I gave up.
“But it’s fine, I blocked it out.”
Five other local bowlers earned medals in their respective singles divisions, including Greg Cole silver in men’s Division 2, 841 points), KC Westerman (gold in men’s Division 5, 726), Emilie Snyders (gold in women’s Division 3, 745) and Barbie Conway (silver in women’s Division 5, 596).
In doubles there was a two-way Prince George tie for gold in Division 4 with Snyders and Debbie Bileck matching the 1,408-point total of Westerman and Sean Demers. In Division 6 doubles Conway and Cindy Komoski won silver.
The team event, Timothy Joliceur, Komoski, Conway and Renner shared bronze in Division 3.
The BC team to be selected for the Special Olympics Canada Summer Games next year in Medicine Hat will be announced sometime in late August.
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