July 16, 2009
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind — Vanderbilt’s Brittni Hamilton expanded her lead on the elite field at the United States Junior Amateur Bowling Championship Thursday afternoon while three other Commodore teammates made the prestigious cut into the 16-person Friday finals.
Hamilton has been exceptional since shaking off some jet lag on Monday’s opening day. She led after the morning’s six-game set and widened it in the afternoon with sterling 262-208-181-198-220-214–1283 (+83) efforts, once again easily the best score among the 78 who survived the cut.
Josie Earnest lurks in the fourth position and if she can finish among the top four in the final standings, she would become the first female in history to make the coveted Junior Team USA five times. Thursday she managed to turn in sets of 1,128 and 1,200 on lanes which did not seem to suit her game.
Freshman Kim Carper continues to hold down a Top 10 spot in seventh place; three Vanderbilt bowlers in the top seven have raised many eyebrows among this crowd of appreciative onlookers! Carper seemed to tire in the early afternoon games but steadied herself with a 210-225 finish.
If that isn’t enough good news for Vanderbilt bowling fans, transfer Kayla Rhoades continued to climb the ladder and made the cut in 15th position. The Lafayette, Ind., sophomore-to-be had solid efforts of 1,203 and 1,117 to earn her berth in Championship Friday.
It probably would have been asking for too much for the fifth Commodore to make the semi-final cut to get into the final action. Brittany Garcia began the day well back and ended up a very respectable 64th in this original field of over 500.
Friday’s round-robin match play set-up is interesting. The winner of each match automatically earns an additional 30 bonus pin count so, for example, a bowler that wins a match by a 170-169 total would actually be credited with a 200 game. Therefore, there seems to be as much a premium on winning the head-to-head matches as rolling high numbers.
Competition gets underway at 8:00 Central time (9 Eastern/local).
Complete coverage can be found at bowl.com with standings here