Gary Thorne to Take Over Broadcasting Duties for PBA
The Professional Bowlers Association has announced that Gary Thorne will take over for Rob Stone as the play-by-play voice for the PBA on ESPN. Randy Pedersen will stay on doing color commentary for the remainder of the season.
Rob Stone announced that he will be leaving ESPN for Fox Sports to announce soccer games. Stone will stay on for the remainder of the World Series of Bowling Events, as they have already been taped. ESPN chose Thorne to replace him for the rest of the 2011-2012 season. Gary Thorne is most commonly known as a hockey announcer, while doing work on several video games, including NHL ’12.
As I don’t know how much bowling knowledge Gary Thorne brings in, hopefully he can do a good job with PBA broadcasts. It showed time and time again that Rob Stone did not have much knowledge of our game and fans resented him for it. Hopefully Thorne will have a more positive impact on PBA fans and will be accepted as the announcer for our sport.
Belmonte Shoots 300 while advancing to PBA World Championship Finals
Jason Belmonte fired the 21st nationally televised 300 game during the PBA World Championship semifinal rounds. The 300 game earned Belmo a $10,000 bonus and helped him advance to the finals of this event. Belmonte defeated Brian Kretzer, Mike Fagan, and Josh Blanchard to advance out of the Mike Aulby division of the PBA World Championship.
Unfortunately, Belmonte’s 300 wasn’t the biggest “news” to come from the show this week. ESPN chose to magnify Josh Blanchard’s “incident” during the first match. Blanchard had his ball stick on his thumb as he approached the foul line. Because of this, it carried him across, where he slipped on the lane. Throughout the day, ESPN has revisited this event several times, on shows such as Pardon the Interruption, Around the Horn, and even SportsCenter. Am I alone where I think that this is ridiculous of ESPN? You have a guy do something that requires and extreme amount of talent, something that’s only been done 20 other times, meanwhile you focus on the poor aspects of the game. ESPN’s representation of our sport has amazed me. They treat our sport like we’re just a bunch of fat drunks, while they promote other “sports” like poker. While I’ve seen the Blanchard clip (embarrassingly titled “Epic Bowling Fail”) repeated over and over again on their network, I have yet to see one clip of Jason Belmonte’s 300 game. As far as I’m concerned, I think it’s about time the PBA packs its bags and finds a new network that will respect our sport, give it the coverage it deserves, and look to do more promotion of the sport than just sucking every dollar it can out of what it thinks their viewers need to see.
That’s just my 2 cents. If you have any other thoughts, I would love to hear them.
Wichita State Sweeps Las Vegas Invitational
The Wichita State University bowling teams swept the Glenn Carlson Las Vegas Invitational. The Shocker men and women both won the event. Webber International finished second in both the men’s and the women’s divisions.
The men’s side of the tournament was led by WSU’s Geoffrey Young with a 9-game total of 2092. Pikeville’s Lucas Hohnstein finished in second with 2013 and Weber State’s Kasey Kolczak finished third with 1965.
Over on the women’s side, Kim Yioulos from Pikeville College led with a 9-game score of 1932. Midland’s Katie Maher finished second with 1929 and WSU’s Jazreel Tan finished third with 1926.
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Some PBA Experience Tips
This video is a couple of years old, but shares some great tips from some great bowlers! Derek Eoff, Bryan O’Keefe, and Lynda Barnes share their tips for bowling on PBA patterns. Hopefully this will help you in your PBA Experience or Sport Bowling league!
2011 Raider Classic Results
From bowl.com:
DAYTON, Ohio - The Notre Dame-Ohio men and Pikeville women came out on top at the Raider Classic. Notre-Dame Ohio defeated Urbana, 461-359, while Pikeville took down Wright State, 422-384, in the title matches.
Urbana led the men’s qualifying with 9,235 and was followed by Morehead State (9,051), Notre Dame-Ohio (8,904) and Martin Methodist (8,877).
Zach Wilkins of Urbana dominated the men’s individual standings with a five-game total of 1,303, which included a 300 game. Jay Foote of Wright State was second with 1,131, while Urbana’s Chris Walden was third with 1,076.
In the women’s qualifying, Pikeville led the way with 8,361, while Wright State was second with 8,254. Adrian was third with 8,176, while Martin Methodist was fourth at 8,172.
Kristin Abbott of Wright State was the high women’s individual with 1,018, while Kirstie Hegedus of Notre Dame-Ohio was second with 1,008. Adrian’s Kristen Marcis was third with 1,004.
Morehead State Men, Lindenwood Women Win Southern Classic
From bowl.com:
Morehead State men, Lindenwood women claim Southern Collegiate Classic titles
MARIETTA, Ga. - The Morehead State men and Lindenwood women took the titles at the Brunswick Southern Collegiate Classic in an event broadcast live on BOWL.com.
Morehead State topped the 26-team men’s field with 11,148, while Webber International finished second with 10,816. Lindenwood’s men’s team was third with 10,694.
In the women’s division, Lindenwood totaled 10,650 to finished on top in the 14-team women’s division. Pikeville finished second with 10,432, while Webber International was third with 10,152.
Javier Diaz of Webber International led the men’s individual standings with a six-game total of 1,335. Tim Mirowsky of South Florida was second with 1,309, while Chris Spoo of Florida Atlantic was third with 1,287.
Lindenwood’s Jillian McBride was the high finisher in the women’s individual standings with 1,300. Katie Thornton of Webber International was second with 1,219, while Kaitlin Quinn of Bellarmine was third with 1,192.
Day 1 Video:
Day 2 Video:
Notre Dame College, Wright State Win AHIBC 1
Congratulations to the Notre Dame College of Ohio men and the Wright State University women for winning American Heartland Intercollegiate Bowling Conference event #1. Notre Dame College edged out Davenport University and the University of Toledo to win their first tournament of the year. Notre Dame College was led by Brandon White (1087, 217.4 Average) and Chris Via (1044, 208.8 Average) who led the tournament. They were followed by Scott Patke (1040) from SVSU, Scott Santysiak (1038) of Toledo and Terry Martin (1030) from SVSU.
Wright State beat out Marian University and Davenport University to start out the season with a win. Wright State was led by Erica Morgan (972, 194.4 Average), Katie Ruehl (912), and Melissa Klodnick (909), who finished 1st, 4th and 5th. Others in the top 5 included Shannon Dewitt (945) from Marian University and Jerrecah Heibel (913) of Notre Dame College.
Full Results
Chris Barnes on NBC Today Show
Chris Barnes showed up at Bowlmor Lanes in Manhattan to give Kathie Lee and Hoda some tips.
Davenport Men, McKendree Women Win NAIA Invitational
INDIANAPOLIS – The McKendree women and Davenport men went undefeated in match play to claim titles Sunday at the 2011 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Invitational.
McKendree took down St. Ambrose, 3-1, while Davenport defeated William Penn, 3-1, in the championship matches at Woodland Bowl. The event was streamed live on BOWL.com from start to finish.
After dropping the first game 220-185, the Bearcats battled back to win the next three to defeat St. Ambrose. McKendree, the runner-up at the United States Bowling Congress Intercollegiate Team Championships last year, rolled with victories of 168-164, 217-186 and 243-159.
“All eight of my players had a great look, so I felt like I could use any of them at any time,” McKendree women’s coach Gary White said. “We just started steamrolling people in match play. It’s one of those rolls you like to get on and it just kept going. The girls did a great job.”
Davenport entered the double-elimination match-play bracket as the No. 15 seed after 24 games of qualifying on Thursday. The Panthers won the opening two games against William Penn, 183-176 and 205-190, before dropping the third game, 213-179. They took the fourth game 214-168 to lock up the win.
“We’ve got a group of guys who have really come to life in the last few weeks,” Davenport men’s coach Mike Eaton said. “Our bracket seemed pretty tough, but some of the top teams got beat early and that really helped us out.”
In the semifinals, St. Ambrose took down Robert Morris (Illinois), 3-2, while William Penn knocked off Viterbo, 3-1, to advance.
NAIA elevated bowling to emerging sport status last summer. The move by one of the nation’s governing bodies for collegiate athletics puts bowling on the path to becoming a championship sport for dozens of additional colleges and universities across the country.
In the 2010-11 season, teams from 28 schools fielded bowling teams. If 50 or more NAIA member institutions designate bowling as a varsity sport, then bowling will be eligible for championship sport status and an NAIA national championship.
The NAIA has 50,000 student-athletes participating at nearly 300 member colleges and universities throughout the United States and Canada. Divided into 25 conferences and the Association of Independent Institutions, the NAIA offers 23 championships in 13 sports. All NAIA bowling programs are members of USBC Collegiate.
A total of 23 men’s teams and 22 women’s teams competed in the NAIA Invitational.
See the original article here at bowl.com
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