Hazleton Area High School Junior Owen Houser arrived at Holiday Bowl in Altoona for their December youth tournament hoping to compete for scholarship money and a coveted spot in the USBC Junior Gold Youth Championships to be held in July in Green Bay, WI.

72 youth bowlers came out to compete in the tournament vying for a total of five spots to be earned across four divisions: U15 boys and girls, and U18 boys and girls. 

The tournament consisted of four games, with the first three counting toward the Junior Gold qualifying. Houser started off with a 206 game, which placed him in 5th but came back with games of 246 and 268 to give him a 720 series and take 1st overall in qualifying by 52 pins. With 1 game left of the tournament, Houser put up a 265 to capture the title by 72 pins with a four game total of 985, which comes out to an average of 246. 

The Junior Gold Youth Championships are a 10-day scratch singles bowling event with qualifying rounds held across four different bowling centers on four different oil patterns. Bowlers compete in front of college coaches as they attempt to make it through the qualifiers, an advancers round, match play and finals to earn scholarships and the possibility to earn a spot on Junior Team USA. 

Houser and the Hazleton Area Cougar boys team begin their season at Leasure Lanes in Lancaster for the Eastern Pennsylvania Ice Breakers Invitational Classic on December 7th.