By BILL SNIER
NORTH CANTON — Chase Wensel left North Canton in August 2024, carrying a multitude of postseason bowling honors with him to Angola. Ind.
But the 19-year-old two-handed right-hander learned some things very quickly when he took to the lanes with his Division III Trine University teammates.
“I was no longer the best guy on the team, and that was a change,” said Wensel, who led the Stark County High School Bowling Conference in average at 228.76 en route to being named Federal League and SCHSBC Federal Division player of the year at North Canton Hoover High School.
“You had to work hard and there were weeks you either had it or you didn’t. You had to wait your turn.”
Wensel floated between varsity and junior varsity play his freshman year, averaging around 207.
“It was a pretty big jump. There was a lot more oil out there on the college level,” Wensel said. “It was about getting stronger equipment and adding more rotation … making the ball hook down lane more and rolling it forward. They worked with me on staying down with my swing. At my size (6-foot-4), I would just pop up and throw it. It was about adding rotation.”
Now home again for the summer months, the mechanical engineering major was able to put his college lessons to good use recently in the Tuesday Summer Trio league at his high school home center, Park Centre Lanes.
Wensel posted games of 278, 279 and 276 for an 833 series, his first career 800 and totally obliterating his previous personal high of 752 shot during a high school event his senior season.
“Last week, I changed my starting position. I lowered the ball in my stance because I felt like I was drifting too much when I was holding it higher,” Wensel said. “So, I dropped it and I seem to be drifting less. It seemed to work.”
Wensel ricocheted one ball off his ankle in Game 1 that produced a 3-pin spare in the seventh frame and left a 10-pin on his final shot. In Game 2, he left a solid 9-pin spare in the fifth.
He doesn’t remember what he left for the eight-spare in the final game, except for also leaving two pins on his final shot.
“I know it’s not sanctioned, but it still counts,” said Wensel, who used a Storm IQ Tour for his milestone.
It’s not a ball he used during college play.
“I really haven’t touched it in a year. It’s really too weak for college shots, but it’s great on house shots or for high school patterns,” Wensel said. “I tried it during the first (college) tournament and it didn’t move at all.”
Although Trine has a contract with Brunswick, Wensel said it is not exclusive and he is free to use other equipment.
The former soccer player, who quit that sport to avoid potential injury and harm to his bowling career, said the endurance part of college bowling — the amount of Baker System games along with individual play — was not a problem.
“Soccer helped with the endurance part of it. As for Bakers, it comes down to the camaraderie of the team and my high school team helped with that,” Wensel said. “You can’t get mad at each other over bad shots and you can bounce ideas off each other.”
Trine will welcome a new head coach this season as 2023 Professional Women’s Bowling Association Rookie of the Year Hope Gramley takes over the program. She is a former national player of the year at Division II McKendree and a four-time college All-American.
As for Wensel, he will continue working on his own game this summer under the guidance of his father, Chad Wensel, who was an assistant coach at Hoover.
“I just have to keep working and make tweaks to my game to improve,” Wensel said. “My dad helps me the most, but I also take videos and pick myself apart to see what works and what doesn’t.”
But that night at Park Centre, everything was working just fine.