Izzie Jones, who will be a fifth-grader at St. Peter’s Lutheran, finished third in last week’s Junior Gold Nationals.
Submitted photo
When the Junior Gold Nationals bowling tournament began in 1998, Chris Jones came away with a third-place finish.
Twenty-five years later, Jones’ daughter Izzie did the same thing. She finished third out of 122 bowlers in the U12 girls division of last week’s Junior Gold Nationals.
“It’s come full circle,” Chris said. “It is pretty cool.”
Chris coaches Izzie, who will be a fifth-grader at St. Peter’s Lutheran School. Chris’ older daughter Lexie won the Indiana State High School Championship for Columbus North last winter.
This was Izzie’s first time bowling in a national tournament. She had to win a qualifier in Brownsburg in April to make the event.
“It was definitely a shock,” Chris said. “We had no idea what we were getting into as far as the level of competition.”
The Junior Gold Nationals took place at six bowling centers in and around Indianapolis, including sites as far north as Lafayette and Anderson. Competitors bowled four games for four consecutive days.
Izzie started out 15th after the first day and steadily moved up each day to move into third after the four days. After those 16 games, the field was cut to 15 players, who then bowled four more games before the field was cut to eight for match play.
As the No. 5 seed in the double-elimination match play, Izzie lost her first game before winning three in a row to capture losers bracket. She then fell to the second-place finisher from the winners bracket in the first game of stepladder competition.
“I was really just shocked,” Izzie said. “My only goal was to get to match play.”
The stepladder games were broadcast and will be shown on CBS Sports Network at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
“It’s really kind of cool,” Chris said. “They brought out the Ladies Professional Bowlers TV set. It’s just like the women pros.”
Izzie, 10, has been bowling for about four years. She bowls in the Saturday Morning Junior League at Columbus Bowl and with her father and sister in a Summer Sport Trio League in Franklin. The family lives in Edinburgh.
This fall, Izzie plans to play volleyball for the St. Peter’s fifth-grade team, where her mother Kylee is the coach. But she plans to continue competing at bowling.
“If she keeps her head into it, she’ll be plenty tough, I would think,” Chris said.
