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Young bowler gets on roll
By KRISTEN LEIGH PORTER Mark Wallen never took bowling very seriously. Sure, he bowled for fun as a little kid, but it wasn't until moving to the county from his native Minnesota that Wallen started to approach the sport differently. He's glad he did. Once Wallen started bowling everyday on his lunch hour and in leagues, his potential became evident. The Homosassa resident, who carried just a 169 average three years ago, recently rolled one of the best series in county history. In an 839 performance July 9, Wallen recorded games of 263, 297 and 279 at Neffer's Bowling in Homosassa. "I never had a bowling ball of my own, then started getting my own equipment and started buying gear, and it helped," said Wallen, who will turn 28 July 30. "Now I've spent so much money on bowling, it's unbelievable," he said. "You don't want to keep losing money so you have got to get better somehow." Wallen was competing in the Oddballs mixed league, so the score was sanctioned. Center owner Steve Neff said the previous record at Neffer's was 811, established by Rich Garner a year earlier on, ironically, July 9. Neff, a professional bowler on the senior tour, has logged four 800 series, including an 835 in 1975. He was on hand to witness the record in progress on Lanes 9 and 10 of his alley, where Wallen produced 31 of a possible 36 strikes. "It was kind of quiet because every game he started out with a string of strikes and everybody was looking for a 300 and watched him, then went back to their own games when he didn't get it," Neff said. Wallen started strong until a a 10th-frame split resulted in a 263. In the second game, he had a perfect game going until the last ball. Wallen rolled a seven to settle for 297. He carded eight consecutive strikes to open the third game, in which he had the only spare in the series for a more-than-respectable 279. Dick Hocking, the executive director of the Greater Citrus Bowling Association, said there's no way to tell for sure just where the record places Wallen in county history. In the 1999-2000 season, Don Griffin was credited with an 845 series. "I know it's a healthy score," Hocking said of Wallen's performance. "It's pretty close to the highest, but we may not have it in archives because some of the files have disappeared." Although Wallen attributed his 839 to luck, with a little more practice the state record could be in his sights. Mark Miller of the public relations department at Bowling Headquarters in Milwaukee said the series mark for Florida is 879. Kristen Leigh Porter can be reached at porter@sptimes.com or 564-3628.
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