Thunder Bay five pin bowlers performed excellent at the Northern Ontario 5 Pin Bowlers’ Association Provincial Open Championships in Sudbury on Easter weekend, coming home with four gold medals, one silver medal and one bronze medal.
This was the first time since 1988 that Thunder Bay won four golds at the Provincial Open.
In the Men’s Singles division, Greg DeGrazia took home his third singles provincial title of his great career, topping the qualifying round with a 275.6 average and winning the gold medal match against Chad Nelles of Sudbury 294-214. Greg won his titles in 2010 and 2013 and was the Canadian Champion in 2010. Dan Taylor qualified second with a 269.6 average and took home the bronze in singles, losing the semi-final match to Nelles by one point, 226-225.
In the Ladies Singles division, Katie Bonnie defended her singles championship last season by pacing the field in qualifying with a 265.2 average and subsequently defeated Renee Laframboise of Azilda 314-269 in the gold medal match. Katie is the first ladies bowler to defend her title since 2002 when Barb McLachlan of Val Caron defended.
In the Men’s Team division, the Thunder Bay team of Trevor Cava, Dan Taylor, Greg DeGrazia, Allan Hurst, Adam Goose, Taylor Michel and coach Bob Taylor got off to a slow start but then roared back, winning 10 of their last 12 games to win the qualifying round with 84.5 points. They then crushed Sunset Country (Dryden, Kenora, Fort Frances) zone 8-0 in the gold medal match to win their trip to Oshawa. This is Thunder Bay’s fifth win in a row in the men’s team division which ties a provincial record set by the Cambrian North (Sudbury) ladies team from 1997-2001.
In the Mixed Team division, the Thunder Bay team consisting of Neil Felbel, Wesley Swoluk, Oleg Lozynsky, Codi Glena-Michel, Krysten Cripps, Angela Begin and coach Joanne Walters took 13 out of a possible 15 matches in qualifying first with 92.5 points, outpacing Gold Belt (Timmins) zone by 14 points. In the final match, they survived against a hard-charging Nickel District (Sudbury) zone, who was trying to run the stepladder, 6-2 to take the gold medal. This was Thunder Bay’s second mixed team gold in four years.
In the Ladies Team division, Thunder Bay took first place in qualifying with a record-setting 98.5 points (beating the previous record set by the Cambrian North ladies in 2000 which was 95.5 points), easily beating second-place Cambrian North by 27 points. Unfortunately, the team of Alyssa Bonnie, Ashley Bjorklund, Katie Bonnie, Amanda Nichols, Devan Hook, Kirstynn Taniwa and coach Brian Bonnie lost two tough matches in the stepladder final (6-2 and 7-1) to the Cambrian North ladies and settled for silver.
Thunder Bay bowlers also took seven out of a possible ten spots on the men’s and women’s all-star teams. The Men’s Team consisted of Greg DeGrazia (268.52 average), Dan Taylor (265.28), Taylor Michel (261.76) and Wesley Swoluk (259.01). Jeff Watts of Sunset Country took the other spot with a 259.72 average. The Ladies Team included Katie Bonnie (252.40 average), Krysten Cripps (248.70) and Devan Hook (245.14). Shelley Petsnick of Sunset Country and Renee Laframboise of Nickel District took the other two spots with 248.73 and 244.36 averages, respectively.
To top this amazing performance, Thunder Bay took top spot in the aggregate standings with 62 points, easily outdistancing Cambrian North zone who finished with 33 points. This was Thunder Bay’s third aggregate title in four years.
The C5PBA National Open Championships will be in Oshawa, Ontario from June 3-6, 2015. Tune into the C5PBA website at www.c5pba.ca to watch the results live and see our Thunder Bay bowlers go for gold.
Wesley Swoluk is the president of the Thunder Bay District 5 Pin Bowlers’ Association
