ESTEVAN — Several members from Estevan Bowl were at the Youth Bowl Canada 10-pin bowling provincials in Saskatoon earlier this month.
Danyck Belanger won the gold medal in the senior boys’ competition, finishing with a five-game total of 987, or an average of 197.4. He had three games above 200, including a top score of 227 in his second contest. Belanger was 10 pins ahead of Brayden Kennedy of Saskatoon-Fairhaven, who was the only other bowler to have a five-game total of at least 950.
Belanger had a one-point lead entering the final game and clinched victory by outscoring Kennedy 213-204 in Game 5.
Also at provincials, Kadence Kraushaar of Estevan won a bronze medal in bantam girls with a five-game total of 534. Her best game was a 147 in her fourth contest. Teal Bramham of Estevan was right behind her in fourth place, finishing with a total score of 454.
Louis Ley won bronze in bantam boys with a five-game score of 596, highlighted by a final-game score of 167 that allowed him to move into third place.
Other local bowlers who competed at provincial were: Sonja Kraushaar, junior girls, five-game total of 687; Kelsey Magnien, senior girls, 491; Zach Belitski, bantam boys, 476; Tristan Boles, bantam boys, 459; Charles Smith-Howa, bantam boys, 423; Soren Peterson, junior boys, 642; Kohen Brandon, junior boys, 557; Ty Thompson, senior boys, 804, Jameson Magnien, senior boys, 647; and Nicholas Young, senior boys, 600.
Coach Blaine Boyle was pleased with the athletes’ performance.
“It’s nice to medal, but all of the kids in general bowled well. It was good. We had a lot of new youths in the tournament, and everybody bowled above average, pretty well, so it was good to see, especially with the new ones who have never competed outside of Estevan before. It’s quite a new experience when they go to a different centre,” said Boyle.
Bowlers from Estevan, Saskatoon and Regina were entered, and Boyle was pleased with how Estevan fared against the larger centres.
“We’re a small program. We don’t have as many kids as some of the big cities. There’s a lot of good competition out there … and Estevan did really well this year,” he said.
