Logan Williams
The 20-year-old survived four days of qualifying to move on to the advancers round, which featured the top 10 percent of the 1,418 entrants in the U20 division.
There he finished 66th out of 204 men, just missing the next phase of qualifying by a mere five pins.
“Yeah, it’s disappointing and I was disappointed in myself because five pins over five days – that’s an extra pin in the tenth frame a day or a count on a split,” he told me. “At the end of the day it comes down to spares. You learn from it; it’s not going to really haunt me.”
Williams, of Bartlett High fame, had a high game of 253 and also added scores of 246, 235, 233 and 231.
He finished with a 194.8 average over 21 games at multiple bowling alleys around Cleveland. The conditions changed from one location to the next, forcing the competitors to improvise and stay sharp mentally.
“It’s excruciating because you can throw a great shot and not strike and then throw a horrible ball and strike. You just get really confused,” said Williams, who could use only five of the nine bowling balls he brought on the trip.
Anchorage’s Maia Struble finished 55th out of 124 in the girls U12 division. She averaged a 144 over 16 games.