Cummins Takes Ninth at Team USA Trials

Freshman Varano takes eighth

by Rod Williamson

LAS VEGAS — The United States Bowling Congress Team USA Trials are designed to select individuals for the national team and junior national team but if there was a category for the overall showing of a collegiate program, Vanderbilt would certainly rank at or near the top.

As competition wound to a close after five days, no less than four active Commodores ranked in the top 15 of juniors and top 22 overall when professionals are included.

Mabel Cummins, bidding for her sixth straight year on Junior Team USA, continued her upward push and finished fourth among the juniors and ninth overall. She had five games over 218, topped by a 248.

Cummins was just ahead of Victoria Varano, who was eighth among juniors and closed the tournament with the day’s best individual performance, averaging 236 over the six games with scores of 247-246-217-275-224 and 207.

Caroline Thesier and Jennifer Loredo were steady and consistent, finishing 11th and 15th among juniors.  Amelia Kiefer ended up in 36th place among the 134 juniors while Alyssa Ballard finished 53rd.

The national teams had not been announced as of this posting. Information will be found on bowl.com.  The top four finishers plus two at-large selections will be added to the 2023 national teams.