Palm Harbor's Teresa Scanlon, 18, is among 32 players opening competition today in College Bowling USA's Singles Championship in Milwaukee.
The event replaces the Association of College Unions International men's and women's national championships.
Scanlon, a Palm Harbor University High School graduate and Florida State University freshman, joins teammate Jeannette Verrelli of Dallas and Central Florida's Stephanie Nation, Miami, in a field of 16 women.
The men's competition of the tournament includes Central Florida's Billy Ragatz, a sophomore from Winter Haven.
The entire field will roll eight qualifying games today to determine the seeds for Saturday's match-play action. It is a best-of-five, single-elimination showdown to decide the men's and women's winners.
Scanlon finished third in the Intercollegiate Bowling sectional championships in Lexington, Ky., two months ago. The top four in the women's and men's divisions from each of the four sections qualified for Milwaukee. Scanlon was the 2000 YABA Bowler of the Year at Countryside Lanes. She was a member of the PHU varsity team that placed second in the 2000 state tourney and third the next season.
Scanlon has qualified the past three years for the USA Junior Gold National Championships, scheduled for July 10-16 in Dallas. Her sister, Stephanie, 14, will join Teresa in the field. Another Scanlon, Brittany, 13, is a bowler who attends Tarpon Springs Middle School.
FINAL STOP: When the ABCb.line World Team Challenge visits Seminole Lanes on Oct. 2-3, it not only will be the last stop at the center but a wind-down to the WTC's final year.
"This is the 12th and final season, so it's the last opportunity to participate in this great event," said tournament director Tom Boedecker of the ABC.
The WTC may be the first casualty of the newly created United States Bowling Congress, which replaces the ABC, WIBC, YABA and USA Bowling.
The World Team Challenge ends its 14-stop regional competition Oct. 16-17 in Mechanicsburg, Pa. The Grand Championship is in October in Las Vegas. That will be the finale to a unique and popular event.
The WTC visited Seminole Lanes its first season in 1993, with Scime Sign of Winter Haven winning the Baker format tourney. Brunswick Pittsburgh captured the 1996 event, which drew a record 112 squads and a women's field won by the Windy City Omegas.
Milwaukee's Contour Power Grips took the 1997 renewal, which had 100 teams. Ninety-two squads showed in 1998 when James Campbell's Top of the Line Pool Service claimed the first of its two titles.
A new qualifying format, new re-entry rules and new conditions greeted players when the tour opened last March.
For information and entries, call Boedecker, 1-800-514-2695, ext. 3415; or log onto www.bowl.com
MCKEE WINS: St. Petersburg's Jamie McKee, 16, captured the girls 12-and-over handicap title in the Florida State Pepsi Tournament in Fort Lauderdale last weekend.
McKee totaled 1,457 pins over six games and received $650 in college scholarship money. She qualified for an all-expenses-paid trip to the National Pepsi Tournament in Dallas in July.
Palm Harbor's Stephanie Scanlon finished 13th in Fort Lauderdale.
Shaun Goucher of Seminole was eighth in the boys 12-and-over scratch competition with 1,323. Palm Harbor's Justin Fecke placed 11th in the age group's handicap division.
McKee and Goucher are members of the Seminole Lanes YABA.
AROUND THE LANES: High scorers - John Cole, 298-820, Brett Bartley, 300-732, Keith Glasgow, 300-738, Greg Sexton, 299-759, and Mike Bongiorno, 299-753, at Liberty; John O'Connell, 299-707, Bob Eggert, 299-796, and Jim Edie, 298-720, Dunedin; Pat Klotchko, 299-751, Countryside; Tim Quick, 300-728, Rainbow; Gary Halstrom, 300, Seminole; and Ken Devol, 299, Sunshine. ... Anne Jones is a new St. Petersburg Association board member. ... Entries are open for the St. Petersburg Bowling Council's Champion of Champions Tournament, set for June 12-13 at Sunrise Lanes. The registration fee is $50 per team, and regular league champions from eight centers automatically qualify. ... Orlando's Chris Hayden won the PBA South Region Tournament in Jacksonville on Sunday. ... Campbell's Top of the Line Pool Service squad leads the Regular Division all-events competition in the ABC Championships in Reno, Nev. Tampa's Don Yoshihara is second to Winter Haven's John Janawicz in the Regular all-events and third in singles.
