April 22, 2016
An already impressive recruiting class became even more so Friday when Vanderbilt Bowling Coach John Williamson announced the signing of national letters of intent by two more outstanding junior stars. Adel Wahner and Maria Bulanova have joined a class that already includes Emily Rigney of Australia and Bryanna Leyen of Maryland, who signed last fall.
Wahner is a straight A student who is regarded as one of the top prospects in the west and Bulanova, whose hometown is Moscow, is one of the world’s highest ranked junior bowlers as the Russian champion.
“We welcome Adel and Maria and are confident they will excel on and off the lanes by contributing to the overall excellence of Vanderbilt University,” Williamson said. “As the world of girls junior bowling expands, we feel fortunate that many of the best and brightest – domestic and international – continue to see Vanderbilt as the destination of choice.”
Bulanova is considered one of the top players on the Federation of Bowling of Russia (FBR). She has been the Russian champion since 2013 and became the first in Russian history individually or as a team member to win gold in international youth championships. Maria is a 15- time prize winner at European youth championships (three gold, six silver and six bronze).
She won the European Champions Cup in 2015 and became the first Russian athlete to win a gold medal in an international adult championship. In 2013 at age 14 she became the youngest player ever to win a European Bowling Tour title. Last month she broke the record over six games in capturing the European Youth Championships with a pin count of 1,470 (245 average).
Wahner has a deep resume of tournament play dating back to age 10 when she entered her first competitive scratch tournament. Adel was 21st out of 763 bowlers at the 2015 U20 Junior Gold. She has won 30 women’s series titles, was the girls scratch singles champion at Main Event in 2014, was the New Mexico-Texas Conference Bowler of the year in 2014-15 and won the New Mexico USBC U20 championship in 2013 among her many bowling accomplishments.
Off the lanes, in addition to ranking sixth in a class of 241, Wahner has been recognized at her Mayfield High School for academic achievement in math, science, English, history and German. She is a member of the National Society of High School Scholars and has attended the National Young Leaders State Conference and the Texas Lone-Star Leadership Conference.
Adel has also participated in the Teen Masters Special Olympics Unified Doubles Tournament for two years and volunteers in the Unguez Laboratory at New Mexico State, helping create a database to catalog data samples.