Manderscheid nabs silver medal at Nationals

A Grade 8 student at St. Augustine School took home a silver medal at the national bowling championships in Winnipeg May 3-5.


Dylan Manderscheid won 16 of 21 games at the championships and finished behind only a bowler from Edmonton. Manderscheid, who regularly bowls at Kemway Lanes in Humboldt, won the provincial championship for his age group in February, qualifying him for nationals.


Even though he ended up doing so well, Manderscheid had to overcome some doubts about his own abilities. He went into the provincial tournament with relatively low expectations.


"I didn't expect to win," he said. "Then I bowled a game in the high 300s and that helped my confidence a lot."


Manderscheid ended up winning the provincial title by a slim margin - less than 10 pins - but it was enough to send him to Winnipeg with more than 20 other bowlers between the ages of 14 and 20. After a long bus ride, complete with stops in Saskatoon and Regina to pick up all the bowlers, the team was off to nationals, where Manderscheid again had to overcome a measure of self-doubt.


"I was very nervous because I thought everyone was going to be way better than me," he said. "I'm just a kid from Humboldt, what chance do I have against these people?"


As it turned out, a pretty good chance. By the time he'd won his third game in a row, Manderscheid knew he could compete with anybody. As the three-day event wound down, he found himself in contention for the top spot. People were reminding him of how close he was to winning, and he found himself thinking about it a little bit. With his parents and grandparents in the crowd, Manderscheid came up just short, finishing in second. Still, he was more than pleased with his performance.


"I was very happy because I didn't think I'd be coming out of there with a medal," he said.


After returning to school at St. Augustine, Manderscheid said he's had lots of teachers and fellow students congratulate him on his success, the crowning achievement of a bowling season that is all but over. Manderscheid will get to the lanes a few times during the summer, but things definitely slow down at this time of year. This high level of success has also motivated him to keep on playing.


"Sometimes I say, 'I don't want to bowl anymore because I'm having a bad day," Manderscheid said. "But deep down I still like bowling."


Like any sport, the best part of bowling is when everything is working, when strikes flow like water and it all seems so easy.


"The best part is when everything is working and you get six strikes in a row or something like that," Manderscheid said with the smile of someone who knows exactly what that feels like. "When it feels like nothing can stop you."