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Show 17 April 8, 1999 io)?fi Robins Dtur es.AFMC bowling roumamenrc McClellan AFB and Los Angeles AFB. Lane conditions rocked the Hill bowlers from the very beginning as each and every bowler from the team posted scores well below their pretournament averages for by Steven R. Ford Hilltop Times staff Robins AFB took full advantage of the home lanes to capture the Air Force Materiel Command bowl- ing tournament held at the Georgia base March 21-2- 6. Nine AFMC bases, including Hill AFB, competed from throughout the command, sending teams composed of three men and three women. The event was entirely scratch based, no handicap was used, and the team and individual events champions were determined by total pins over 18 games. The AFMC championship was determined by three events: the A A the first three games. "After the first day, we knew that we weren't doing well, but I told the team, look, nobody else is doing well," said Bell, captain of and top bowler for the Hill's men team, finishing with a 189 average for the tournament. "Just do what you can, do your best and have fun with it. Show good sportsmanship, don't get mad and have fun." Strikes were hard to come by, and converting the spares turned into more of an adventure than usual. "I couldn't pick up the spares," said SSgt. Donna Simmons, captain of the women's team. "Where I normally had a hook, there was no hook anymore. So I had to find new marks, and you changed lanes every two games, so just as you figured out the shots, you had to find new marks all over again." "You get really frustrated," said Folkerts of the tournament experience. "I mean you try to not let one frame get to you, but then it gets to two frames and then three. It just drives you nuts. You know you're not that bad. We just kind of smiled and went , team event, the singles event and the mixed doubles. Lane conditions were quite challenging for the tournament as the lanes were dry for the practice rounds and flooded for tournament play. The lanes' outside boards were wet with oils while the middle of the lane was rather dry. As a result, bowlers playing a hooking ball would find their shots sliding on the outside boards farther out on the lane while hooking much harder than expected when reaching the inside boards. Those playing a straighter ball, especially to the inside of the lane, would have a hard time holding their line. "I'm more straight up than Billy SSgt. Bell is, so I don't swing it out very wide," said SSgt. Rick Folkerts. "But what happened was, if you got out past where you wanted to throw, it was gone. It never came back, and it didn't leave anything you could shoot at. That was the problem, it was leaving difficult, difficult spares. You were left with washouts, splits, bizarre splits." Such conditions helped to keep the tournament's scores lower than expected with just one 700 series, a 705 by Terry Ray of Kelly AFB, recorded during event. the three-da- y Kent of the Hill team turned out to be David MSgt. prophetic as he said a week before the tournament, "It comes down to having the right equipment for the given surface and adjusting to the lane conditions." Indeed, the tournament came down to exactly that, Photo by Steven on." Dori Gimondo from Tinker AFB, Okla. rolled the tournament's high game, posting 277 in just her sixth game. The men's high game was 276 by Rudi Roth of Wright-PattersoRay of Kelly AFB was the men's champion, winning the singles and overall titles, while Gimondo was the top individual bowler for the women. Robins AFB dominated the tournament events, finishing either first or second in each. Eglin AFB took the title in the team series, with Robins hot on their heels in second. Robins came back to take the mixed n doubles series by more than 200 pins, with Kirtland in AFB trailing second. AFB, who ended up in fifth place over all, rose up to take the singles title, with Robins finishing number two. In the end, the Robins team just bowled more consistently, with all six of their bowlers finishing in the top ten individually, than the rest of the field and ran away with the 1999 AFMC bowling tournament R. Ford SSgt. Donna Simmons displays the kind of form that earned her both a 188 average and a spot on the Hill AFB command bowling team. n. and the Robins team seemed to have an easier time adjusting to the home bowling center than the rest of the competing field. The Georgia based team, with more than a 400-picushion, finished in first a of total with 19,918 pins for the 18 games. place Wright-PattersoAFB, with 19,499 total pins, finlead over third ished in second with a 200-piat Tinker total 19,299 pins. place "With difficult lane conditions like that, the bowlers have to bear down and concentrate on making their spares," said Mike Lucovitz, the manager of the Hill Bowling Center. "Essentially, that's what determined the winners was the spare shooting." The Hill team,-wit17,792 total pins, finished in seventh place overall, just ahead of teams from n n Wright-Patterso- n n T K3OOO 1 """It Corinne 5 -- VSp ""HI 1 j Brigham City Y cwwntn " 1 Willard f ' ' I H r HflMt. 1 novnctut quick 544-123- - 'j2n rm n NEW 4 I LAYTON 543-227- 7 USED CREDIT HOTLINE 723-345- 6 Eden fN Vj I 645 N. MAIN KrJ, ; Plain City- - n'Af 399-562- 1 Ge i North Ogden ' gham t! 1 723- - 5255 0GM SALES Jk SERVICE Geel-- H I 647 S. 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