By DONOVAN GRUBAUGH
USBC Communications
GREEN BAY, Wis. – New Hui Fen of Singapore averaged over 252 and led by nearly 100 pins over second place after the first day of the 2024 United States Bowling Congress Queensat The Ashwaubenon Bowling Alley on Thursday.
New shot games of 227, 245, 246, 266 and 278 for a five-game total of 1,262, and averaged 20 pins better than Colombia’s Laura Plazas, who is second with an 1,166 total. Liz Kuhlkin of Schenectady, N.Y. (1,156), Stow’s Jillian Martin (1,155) and Latvia’s Diana Zajalova (1,145) occupy the rest of the top five, respectively.
Emily Eckhoff of Wheat Ridge, Colo. (1,118) is sixth, England’s Verity Crawley (1,117) seventh, Colombia’s Juliana Franco and Elise Bolton of Apollo Beach, Florida (1,113) in a tie for eighth, with Olivia Farwell of Elizabethtown, Pa., and Germany’s Birgit Noreiks (1,111) tying for 10th on the day.
Defending champion Lindsay Boomershine of Brigham City, Utah, currently sits in a tie for 38th place, and the cut line is held by Stephanie Zavala of Long Beach, Calif., with a 1,014 total.
Among other Ohio players, Lewis Center’s Jen Higgins is 15th (1,103), Cuyahoga Falls resident Rocio Restrepo is 55th (1,026) and Oregon’s Jodi Woessner is 65th (1,013).
New has taken what she’s learned from the first two Professional Women’s Bowling Association Tour stops to have a successful day on the lanes this afternoon and give herself a sizable lead going into Day 2 tomorrow.
“I learned that I need to have a few gameplans for the practice session to optimize that time, and I had four different plans, sticking with the one that worked,” said New.
She will keep those different plans in her back pocket for the burn squad tomorrow in anticipation of how the bowlers before her begin breaking down the 40-foot oil pattern.
“I’m not sure how B Squad will break them down, so we’ll see how it goes.”
New isn’t looking too far ahead right now, as there is still a lot of bowling left, but a Queens win would bring about a variety of emotions.
“It’s been a while since I’ve made a TV show, let alone a major show, so I think I would be very emotional,” said New.
New and the rest of A Squad return at 6 p.m. for their second five-game block of qualifying following B Squad, which begins the day at 2 p.m.
Following Saturday’s final qualifying block, the top 63 qualifiers plus Boomershine will move on to the double-elimination match-play bracket starting Sunday, where each bout will be a three-game total-pinfall match.
The final two remaining in the Winner’s Bracket will bowl each other for the No.1 seed for Tuesday’s live TV finals show, while the final four in the Elimination Bracket will bowl for the last three spots on the show.
The stepladder finals will begin Tuesday at 7 p.m. on CBS Sports Network, where the winner will receive the coveted tiara and top prize of $60,000. All competition leading up to the televised finals will be streamed live only on BowlTV.