Four bowlers from Williams Lake were among the best in B.C. to attend the YBC 4 Steps to Stardom Provincials in Surrey March 2-3.
Renee O’Hara and Caleb Cebuliak both took part in the singles event, while Kara McAlpine and Piper Kosolofski teamed up for the doubles competition at provincials, held at Scottsdale Bowling Alley.
Kara and Piper earned their berths last month at the bantam doubles zone championships held in Prince George, while Caleb and Renee punched their tickets through the singles zones held this past December, also in Prince George.
Renee, bowling in a field of the top six bantam girls representatives from each region, pitched her way to a silver medal at provincials.
“I didn’t really set any goals before,” the nine-year-old said. “I just wanted to bowl well. I had one bad game at provincials, the rest were pretty good.”
At the end of 10 games O’Hara found herself deadlocked in a tie for the silver medal, forcing a tiebreaker.
There, Renee bowled a 154, while her opponent threw at 118, giving her the silver.
“I was so happy,” she said. “I was totally nervous, but I’m already looking forward to next year.”
Renee said she first started bowling two years ago and noted a score of 80 points would have been a good game for her at the time.
“Now my average is 149,” she said.
Caleb, who competed in the junior boys division at provincials, managed a fourth-place result. This was Caleb’s third time attending the provincial championships.
“I bowled a bit below my average,” he said. “Just different lanes than I’m used to so it was a bit tougher to bowl on.”
Kara and Piper, meanwhile, finished fifth.
Their coach and Kara’s dad, Kevin McAlpine, said the duo got off to a rough start, but managed to turn it around on day two of the competition.
“They struggled on the first day, but the second day they won three out of five matches,” Kevin said.
“Day two was for sure a lot better. One game they threw Kara had a 217 and Piper bowled a 190.”
All four agreed that while competing at provincials was nerve racking, they are already looking forward to hopefully qualifying again next year, and to continue to improve.
“That’s my goal right now - to continue working on my average,” Kara said.
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