Junior Gold recap

Well junior gold has come and gone, and i better start off saying congrats to everyone who made the team, and especially to my good friend Marshall Kent.

After bringing down 9 balls to choose from, i had to pick my six

I ended up choosing:

Outburst

Eruption

Tropical Heat

Victory Road

Avalanche Solid

T Zone

Day 1:

We bowled on the WTBA Mexico City, it is 45ft long pattern. I started out with the outburst and started stringing. had a good first 3 games then missed a trasition and missed a ball change and absolutely had a bad game. Strange enough though, everyone had a bad game 4 which was really surprising.. anyways then i switched to my victory road with a light surface to smooth out the breakpoint, It worked but wasn't the magic touch going 183 and 183 to close out the set. finished 39 under for the block.

Day 2:

We bowled on the WTBA Los Angeles, 36 ft pattern. I started out right of 5 and used my tropical heat with 2000 surface to smooth out the backend and let it roll. It worked out great starting plus for the first 2 games then once again missed a ball change. then i made a change to the avalanche solid with 4000 surface so it didnt have the snap on the back end and ended up being a great ball choice going the front 8 the next game only to almost 7 9 in the ninth and leave the 7 pin then the next shot almost pocket 7 10.... lol then i went even the next 2 games so i finished 60 over for the block.

Day 3:

We bowled on the WTBA Seoul, 39 ft pattern, started off with the tropical heat, i was getting to the pocket but i wasn't getting the carry then made a ball change to the victory road and started shooting better then it got really wierd for me, balled down to the eruption then game 6 i had to go back because i got into so crazy over under reaction... i finished 49 under but it could of been worse so i am happy.

Day 4:

I qualified 76th of 145 bowlers who made cut which was a improvement for me since i was the cut last year.

WTBA Tokyo 43ft pattern

Block 1:

Started with the Outburst and stayed with it the whole 6 games. . I struggled the first 3 games then pulled my head out of my ass and finished the last 3 games really strong and finished 60 over i believe.

Block 2:

I had the same game plan but a little different starting point, it didnt work. i couldnt catch a break in game 1 then game 2 it was better, actually went plus but then the bad breaks came back to haunt me, then i made a ball change and it worked. all those pins i gained in the first block, i gave back in the second block which is frustrating...

but i moved up the leader board and finished 53rd.

Now to talk about the finals, i missed the first block and watched the final games of the final block. there is some great bowling the last 3 games that i watched. it was some clutch bowling and some good emotions.

congrats to the winners and the people who were in the top 4, that got automatic spots.

the committee got to pick 2 other bowlers from the field of 16, which fellow torched lane blogger Cameron Weier was in.

Cameron had the tournament of his life, never dropping out of the top 5 through the 3 days of qualifying and through semis and so on. he was even leading after day 2. but he was 5th after the finals which didn't get him an automatic spot on team USA and was an at large pick same for the 11 bowlers.

I thought for sure that Cameron was gonna get picked for the team, and how can he not get picked for the team after a tournament like he had during the week. but i guess the United States stops in the midwest because no one from the west coast gets any credit. and cameron didnt get picked for the team which was shocking to everyone. but this isnt the first time the committee passed up great talent, Greg Geering also got passed up last January at the Team USA Trials... its just a shame to see these two great talents and bowlers i would want representing my country not make the team. and by all means no disrespect to the other bowlers, they deserve it too but no one deserves it more then these 2 bowlers..

You don't have basketball without Michael Jordan, You don't have baseball without Babe Ruth, you don't have football without Jerry Rice. you don't have boxing without Muhammad Ali. you don't have hockey without Wayne Gretzky. and YOU don't have Team USA without Cameron Weier and Greg Geering..