July 1, 2015
PANAMA CITY, PANAMA–Vanderbilt’s Giselle Poss won bronze Tuesday as her Puerto Rico trios team placed third at the 2015 PABCON Games.
Competing with teammates Kristi Lopez and Nicole Rivera, Poss’ trio finished behind Mexico and was edged by one pin for the Silver Medal by the United States team. The Mexican team won the event handily with 3,843 pins, a 213.50 average.
The battle for second came down to the last spare attempt by Lopez, who had been under the impression she needed to double in the tenth to tie when in fact a strike and spare would have earned the tie. After a first ball strike, her second ball knocked down nine pins and thinking the one-pin spare no longer mattered, she didn’t focus on the shot and missed, thus losing the chance for silver by that one pin. The USA averaged 206.33, Puerto Rico 206.28.
Poss, a rising junior from Montgomery, Ill., was eligible for the Puerto Rican national team because it was her mother’s birthplace. She sent these comments Tuesday evening from Panama City:
It was really nice for Coach (John Williamson) to be able to make the trip out to Panama both to support me and my team and to also look for future players for the Vanderbilt team. I’m happy he is able to stay through tomorrow and watch some of the team competition as that is usually the most exciting event to watch and participate in.
The first thing I noticed when coming to Panama for the PABCON event was the heat and humidity. My Puerto Rican teammates and I had to fight our way through no air conditioning in the bowling alley the past few days and the air was thick and humid. This makes the approaches a little more difficult to deal with considering that it is harder to slide normally. But, we fought through it and were able to win several medals both on the girls’ side and the boys’ side for each event.
There is definitely a level of comfort this event offers its participants in that we are all staying at a really nice hotel that is attached to Central America’s biggest mall. I am extremely thankful for this opportunity that the Puerto Rican national team has given me as this is a great experience.