Local youth bowlers captured a gold medal in the Mixed Team division at the Ontario Winter Games held in Thunder Bay from Feb 23-25, 2024.
Capturing gold in the Mixed Team division was the team from the Gateway division: Taylor Antler, Morgan Bosak and Alexie Dinel from Tri-Town Lanes in Haileybury with Gavin Dewar, Connor McKay and Coach Natasha Smith from Partners Bowling in North Bay.
60 bowlers across Ontario participated in this event split among three separate divisions – Ladies, Men’s and Mixed.
The tournament consisted of a triple round-robin qualifying round with the top three teams moving on to the medal round on Sunday afternoon.
During that round, the Mixed team captured 38 points out of a possible 72 points, which was enough to place second in the qualifying round.
The medal round consisted of the second-place team competing against the third-place qualifying from the home town of Thunder Bay.
It was an exciting game which resulted in a victory for the Gateway team in the final frame.
The team then had to face the first-place qualifier by beating them twice to earn an opportunity at a gold medal.
The first-place team from the southern Ontario Western division did not lose a match during the qualifying round.
Once again in both games, the Gateway team with multiple chants from their team of supporters were victorious in the final frame of the games.
Capturing a fourth place finish was the Gateway Ladies team consisting of Trisha Walker-Dupont, Kiera Beirsto from Tri-Town Lanes and Leah Spurvey, Morgan McKay, Sadie Tremblay and Coach Marc Lafleur from Partners Bowling.
