Meise, MacRitchie roll to zone titles
Local five-pin bowlers Paige Meise and Iain MacRitchie will lead players from the northern region into the B.C. Open Championships this spring in Nanaimo.
Meise – fresh out of the youth ranks – and the veteran MacRitchie emerged as the top finishers at the north zone trials, held this past weekend at Nechako Lanes and Black Diamond Lanes.
In 16 games, Meise had a total pinfall of 4,143 for an average of 258. She finished 145 pins ahead of Prince George’s Kim Chadwick and 263 in front of Morgan Burdock of Fort St. John. Meise, Chadwick – a member of the Prince George Sports Hall of Fame – and Burdock will be part of the singles competition at the B.C. Open Championships, April 19-21 in Nanaimo.
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They’ll also form one half of a women’s team that will include Coralee Szilagyi of Fort St. John, Tiana Tecson of Prince George and Michelle Hruby of Smithers. That trio finished fourth through sixth at the north zone trials.
MacRitchie, meanwhile, won the men’s north zone title with a total pinfall of 4,219. Over the course of 16 games, he averaged 263. MacRitchie was 42 pins up on secondplace finisher Kyle Parker and 71 ahead of third-place bowler Larry Richet, both of whom are Prince George residents. MacRitchie, Parker and Richet will compete in singles at provincials and will also take part in the team event with Williams Lake players Brent Morrison, Morgan Mailhiot and Kevin McAlpine, who placed fourth, fifth and sixth at the north trials.
There will also be a mixed team division at the B.C. finals. The north squad will feature Lisa McAlpine (Williams Lake), Lorraine Sharyk (Terrace), Lee Sheppard (Prince George), Chris Arnett (Prince George), Tyler MacLean (Williams Lake) and Chris Conley (Prince George). The mixed team members placed seventh through ninth (women and men respectively) at the north zone competition.
Winners at the B.C. Open Championships will advance to nationals, May 29 to June 2 in Surrey and Langley.
• Earlier this month, five-pin bowlers from across B.C. competed in the Youth Challenge Provincial Finals. Northern bowlers gathered at Black Diamond Lanes and claimed four of the six spots for nationals, which will be held March 27-31 in Ottawa.
The top three finishers and national qualifiers for the girls were Madison Richter of Smithers (269.25 average in eight games), Mikayla Eby of Nanaimo (253.75) and Jesslyn Arnett of Prince George (227.25).
On the boys side, Dean Florell of Prince George won with an eightgame average of 269.88. He was followed closely by Corbin Taylor of Quesnel (269.75) and Daniel Dooley of Abbotsford (269.38). Taylor was just one pin back of Florell and Dooley was four pins off the winning pace.
Alternates for nationals are fourth-place finishers Brittany Cornford of Vancouver (226.00) and Will Peters of Prince George (251.50).