Dolleton gets win, but Arocho is in
Vacation opens door for 6th-place finisher; Herrell tops men’s side
Mabel Dolleton picked the right time for good bowling in the 58th Beat the Champions.
Well, sorta.
Dolleton topped the women’s side of the Section 3 sectional Sunday at Diversey River Bowl in Chicago with a 716.
Melvin Herrell won the men’s side with a 782.
Thing is, Dolleton can’t bowl the finals because she will be on a planned vacation. That allowed sixth-place finisher Carmen Arocho to advance.
‘‘I really wanted to go,’’ said Dolleton, a registered nurse at Evanston Hospital. ‘‘This is fun. This is a great thing.’’
BTC, the charity event by the Chicagoland Bowling Proprietors Association, is a great thing. In its first 57 years, 5,789,515 entries raised $2,872,914.93 for charity. The Sun-Times is a sponsor.
‘‘I was bowling with an awesome group of women,’’ Dolleton said. ‘‘I had to step up my game.’’
She had games of 150, 134 and 171 to go with 261 pins of handicap. In BTC, handicap is 90 percent of the difference a bowler averages under 220. The timing was good for Arocho, who was bowling on a fractured or sprained ankle suffered during the bad weather this month.
‘‘Oh, my God,’’ she said when she heard her name called as a sub for the finals. She recently returned to the area from Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.
Herrell wrapped solid games of 235 and 216 around a big second game of 255 to go with 78 pins of handicap.
‘‘In the third game, I moved in a couple of boards and went to my Katana Slash,’’ said Herrell, a bus driver from Chicago. ‘‘Another lefty and I were on the same lanes, and the lanes were drying up a little bit.’’
The best quote came from Darrell Johnson, a manager for the Social Service Administration.
‘‘Hey, Rufus, we’re big time,’’ said Johnson, who was the final qualifier.
He was congratulating Rufus Coleman, a Chicago retiree who also bowled at Skyway Bowl and finished second with a 707. Brian Rheaume, a computer consultant from Chicago, was the only man advancing who came from Diversey River Bowl.
Karen Mrozek, a Chicago retiree who made the finals in the 1970s and won a microwave, was second with a 684. Other women advancing to the finals were Lisa Marraqurin-Nunez, a banker from Chicago, Theresa Kelsey, a Chicago retiree, and Lorraine Moore, an RN at St. Bernard Hospital.
In the finals, the top prize for the men and women is $7,500.
Tulio Da Silva scored 16 points, grabbed nine rebounds and blocked three shots to help Missouri State slip past Loyola 65-61 in a Missouri Valley Conference game Sunday at Gentile Arena.
Jarred Dixon added 10 points and Josh Webster 10 assists for the Bears (15-12, 9-5), who earned their fourth consecutive victory and completed a season sweep of the Ramblers.
Cameron Krutwig scored a career-high 24 points and Marques Townes 23 for Loyola (16-11, 9-5).
♦ No. 11 Michigan State (21-5, 12-3) held Ohio State (16-9, 6-8) to 13 points in the second half on its way to a 62-44 victory in Big Ten play in East Lansing, Michigan. The Spartans finished the game on a 20-2 burst to break away from a 42-42 tie. The Buckeyes led 31-25 at halftime but shot 4-for-21 in the second half.