Trio of local bowlers qualify for provincials

When asked how the weekend went for himself at the Sunset Country Open roll-offs in Kenora, Rick Stamarski summed up the feeling for everyone who competed.
“It was frustrating,” he laughed.

“The lanes were tough there during the weekend and everyone had to make adjustments for that, which you could see by the scores,” he noted.
Leading the Plaza Lane contingent was Jeff Watts, who totalled 4,301 pins over 20 games (10 on Saturday and 10 more on Sunday), which left him in second place among the men behind Dryden’s Chris Gadd (4,371).
“He struggled a bit up there,” Stamarski said of Watts, who qualified for the nationals in the singles competition last year.
“He didn’t bowl anywhere close to his capabilities, but I think that he was just trying to adjust to the challenges that we all had there.
“You get frustrated and start trying to do a whole bunch of things to try and get things working, and that was what everyone was experiencing this weekend,” he reasoned.
Stamarski, meanwhile, finished with a 4,141 total to nab fourth place and a berth on the Sunset Country men’s team that will compete at the provincials in North Bay from March 27-30.
After getting off to a slow start, Stamarski got better as the weekend wore on, with his best score being a 295 in his second game on Sunday.
“I could have gotten a little bit of a higher score in that game,” he lamented.
“I really think that I was just able to get on a roll in the game, and I was able to keep playing like that for most of the day,” he added.
Mike Behan also competed in the men’s event but narrowly missed out on a second-straight trip to the provincials, falling short of the ninth and final berth by just 26 pins.
After sinking as low as 12th place following the five-game block Sunday morning, Behan rallied in the afternoon by averaging 214 over the final five games but it proved to be too little, too late.
“I just dug myself too big of a hole,” Behan noted.
“But I didn’t fold it up, either,” he added. “And in the end it was a nail-biter.
“I got within 31 pins of Mike Magee [Kenora] for the final berth heading into the last game, but I could only manage a 216 to his 211 to close the gap by just five [pins].”
On the ladies’ side, Toni Benning of Fort Frances earned her first provincial berth in several years, finishing in fifth place with a 3,728 total over the 20 games.
“She used to go to the provincial events years ago, but this is the first time that she will be going in a long time,” Stamarski noted.
“So it’s very exciting for her to get that spot.”
Charlotte Hazlewood topped the women with a 4,022 total.
Rounding out the Sunset Country men’s team are Norm Sanders (Dryden), Mike Cox (Atikokan), and Tim Gadd (Dryden).
Making up the rest of the women’s team are Jackie Miner (Dryden), Shelley Petsnick (Dryden), Tammy Woitowicz (Dryden), and Shauna McKay (Kenora).
The Sunset Country mixed team features Mitchell Alcock (Kenora), Chris Rollins (Dryden), Magee, Terry DeLaronde (Dryden), Cheryl Stefanik (Kenora), and Amanda Hall (Balmertown).
“We pretty much know what to expect before we head down there [to North Bay],” said Stamarski.
“We just have to go to the alley before we leave and practice ahead of time,” he noted.