Now that’s how you make a national championship debut.
The South Hill Bowling Lanes duo of Hunter Anderson and Brekkin Hill ended up bringing home the Bantam mixed team silver medal from the Youth Bowl Canada national tournament in Thunder Bay during the July 10 weekend, capping a solid showing for the local team at the event.
Anderson and Hill joined Regina’s Carrington Straza and Addison Manwaring to finish second in the mixed tournament, which brings the boys and girls doubles teams from each province together for a special one-day roll-off for national glory.
The Saskatchewan foursome ended up rolling a 2970 total for the five-game competition, finishing just over 200 points back of B.C. for the gold medal and 26 points up on bronze-medalist Alberta.
Hill rolled a 162 average in the competition, with a high game of 181, while Anderson put up a 137 average and had a 172 in his first game for his high score.
Hill and Anderson also came within a single win of playing for a medal in the main Bantam Boys singles draw, but ended up losing in the first round of the stepladder playoff.
They went 3-1 in their first three round robin matches -- including a 351-320 victory over Northern Ontario in their fourth game, where they put up their highest total of the tournament.
A 4-3 record overall was good enough for third place in their first-round pool, and Anderson and Hill didn’t let up when the stepladder qualification round began.
They opened with a 312-293 win over Newfoundland before falling 359-269 to Southern Ontario and -- needing a win in their last game to advance -- a 302-300 nailbiter of a victory over Quebec.
That was good enough for second place in Hill and Anderson’s qualification pool, sending them into a match-up with Northern Ontario to open the stepladder. There, things didn’t go quite as well as they did in the round robin, as Northern Ontario would take a 315-305 victory, knocking Saskatchewan from the competition.
Fellow Moose Jaw competitor Jackson Leroy also had a solid showing at the tournament, finishing fourth in his second round robin pool and just missing the stepladder.
Leroy put together a 6-4 record in the first round robin to sit third overall heading into the second round, but ran into difficulty from there, managing a single win in his next five games. That meant a fourth-place finish in his pool, missing the stepladder by half a point.
All told, Leroy would put together a 255.47 average through his 15 games, and with that would come a special honour, as he’d bring home the Senior Boys High Average scholarship in his final YBC national tournament.
You can check out all the scores and all the results from the weekend at www.ybcnationals.youthbowl.ca.
