Sophomore Nolan Faulkner is now moving forward to state this friday for bowling.
Nolan had to compete against 135 people or more during his last tournament, he had to get the best overall fill percentage to be able to qualify for state. A fill percentage is when bowlers get so many strikes at the end they can roll one more time to get bonus points.
“I had the best fill percentage at a 78 fill percentage,” Nolan said.
Bowling has been a big part of Nolan’s life since he was three years old.
“I’ve been bowling for 12 years,” Nolan said.
His dad was the one that got him into bowling. His dad bowls in several leagues and coaches both the middle school and high school teams.
“My dad has been bowling his whole life but he just started teaching about three years ago,” senior Olivia Faulkner said.
Nolan’s highest bowling score is 299. The highest bowling score possible is 300 points, this is known as a ‘perfect game.’
“Bowling has been in our family for a long time. His grandpa Faulkner is in the bowling hall of fame and his uncle was a pro bowler,” Nolan’s mom Nicki Faulkner said.
Nolan’s friend sophomore Mitchell Lundt enjoys bowling as well. Lundt and Nolan met in third grade through baseball.
“Nolan got me into bowling and we have bowled on the middle school team together since seventh grade, and we bowl on a Saturday league together,” Lundt said.
The Faulkners say that bowling helps bring their family closer. Even if they do not bowl competitively they still all bowl together.
“Our lives revolve around bowling. Every day there are either meets or tournaments that we are attending,” Olivia said.
Bowling is just like any other sport, it takes a lot of time, practice, and effort to be able to succeed at it.
“I also think it’s important to note that high school bowling is different from league bowling. League bowling is your traditional bowling where one person bowls their games and gets individual scores. High school and middle school bowling is bowled in Baker style. This is where there are five people bowling two frames per game to get the final score,” Nicki said. “ High school meets consist of nine games. Our district bowls double headers so our bowlers are bowling 18 games on meet day. Each bowler accumulates stats like in every other team sport and Nolan’s stats earned him fifth place in our district.”
Nolan’s friends and family are very supportive of him and have shown him that he can rely on them to have a fun time at the lanes.
“I think bowling means a lot more to Nolan than it does to me. He’s been doing it since he was three, and he’s very passionate about it. To me, it’s a fun sport I can do with my friends,” Lundt said.
Nicki stated that her family has always been supportive of Nolan and his decision to bowl, as is that they are extremely happy to see Nolan bowl at state.
“I’m excited to move onto state,” Nolan said.
