Youth bowlers make mark at tourney as they roll toward state

Things are rolling along for young bowlers these days.

The youth league of Thunder Rolls Bowling Center made some noise during the 14th annual Snowball Classic in Grand Junction, with multiple Craig competitors taking wins in their age groups and still more readying for the next level.

Cody Lewis won the Division 6 scratch singles event with a 626 total and teammate Nathan Harris 18th, scoring 417.

LeeAnna Nelson earned fifth place in the Division 5 singles at a score of 502, with Aveory Lighthizer 10th at 467.

For Division 4, Hailey Goodwin took 12th, Arianna Anderson 21st and Rylie Dschaak 22nd.

In the doubles scratch events, Northwest Colorado athletes won both the Division 2 — Alex Velardo and Tyler French scoring 762 — and Division 3 with Mackenzie Schneider-Ott and Rachel Updike outscoring their nearest competitor by more than 100 pins at 864.

Paired together in doubles, Lewis and Harris finished second overall in Division 6 with a combined score of 1,159, while Dschaak and Goodwin were third in Division 4 at 873.

Taking fifth in Division 5 were Lighthizer and Nelson with a 958 tally.

Anthony Velardo and Aiden Antonacci were fourth in Division 2, while Joslyn Curtis and Kylie Johnson tied for seventh. In Division 3, Makenzie Velardo and Anderson were fourth, Nevada Reno and Lexi Brown fifth, Lawrence Nelson and Zander Martinez seventh, Jayden Cromer and Garett Taylor ninth, and Andrew and Evan Duran 15th.

“I am totally impressed and super happy with how all the kids did. We really made a great presence at the tourney,” said coach Anna Lighthizer.

Craig rollers are already getting in motion for their next big event, the state round of the Pepsi tournament in March.

“We have a few others that weren’t able to compete in the last one, but they’ll be going to state too,” Lighthizer said. “They’re all starting to peak right when we need them to be and working really hard. We’re so excited.”