Nolan Blessing '21 Rolling to the Top
La Salle Athletics
La Salle Sophomore Nolan Blessing '21 and member of the La Salle varsity bowling team participated in the Junior Gold National Bowling Tournament held in Dallas, Texas. The event consisted of 4 days of qualifying rounds in which the field is cut to 1/7th of the participants. There were roughly 700 boys in Nolan's age division (U15B) of the almost 4,000 participants in this competitive Dallas event. Nolan made the top 16 and advanced to match play as he finished the 26 games in 5th place with a pin count of 5414 and an average of 208.23. He was in 1st place after 8 games, 12 games and 18 games. His pin count would've actually been high enough to qualify in the boys U20 division as well which consisted of 1,400 of the best youth bowlers in the country! Nolan won his first two matches in match play before losing and settling for 5th place overall. He was one win away from appearing in the televised finals. Nolan won a $1,750 collegiate scholarship as a result of his success.
Nolan also qualified for the USA team event with his friends from Cuyahoga Falls, OH and Newport, KY. Their team qualified in 1 of only 16 regions in the country to advance to the National Championships in Dallas, Texas. Nolan's team was seeded 8th after qualifying. On the 2nd day of event, they lost their first match and dropped into the losers bracket but won all of their remaining matches to make it to the televised finals. The final match will be televised on CBS Sports at 8:00pm on August 21st. Please come join us at Colerain Bowl to watch this exciting event!
Congratulations Nolan!!!!
