LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. –
The 1st Communications Squadron came to play on day two of Langley's intramural bowling champion tournament.
Sherri Strifler began game one against the Air Combat Command Intelligence Directorate's "B" team with a string of six strikes in a row leading to a season high 245 game. The A2 team was not going to go quietly into the night as they came back in the second game with a victory leaving a slight 10-pin difference between the teams. The final game of the series was hard fought, but in the end, Rich Riddle's 241 knocked A2 into the consolation game.
The other third-round match pitted the number two and three seeds against each other, and they did not disappoint. Brain Snyder powered Global Cyberspace Integration Center, or GCIC team, to a game one victory behind his 227 game. However, Brad McCumsey and his band of maintenance brothers were not to be denied as they stormed back with a 161-pin beat-down in game two. This left a margin of 88 pins going into the final game.
The maintainers seemed to be spent at this point, only managing games in the 150s across the board. The GCIC team, no doubt remembering that they were only bridesmaids last year, followed Nancy Townsend and her 213 game into the championship match.
In the third place match, 1st Aircraft Maintenance Squadron beat the ever-loving stuffing out of A2 in the first game by 145 pins behind Rick Thorpe's 225 and Doc Minnier's 216. This didn't faze the team that posted the highest team average for the tournament. A2 claimed 42 of those pins back in game two.
In the final game it was no contest as Tim Spencer posted the high game of the night with a 253 and when added to Jeff Yager's 233, closed the final chapter on the maintainers.
So now the stage was set, 12th ranked 1 CS versus the number two seed, GCIC, would this finally be the year that GCIC took home the trophy? Townsend continued her stellar shot-making by posting a 215 in game one, but it wasn't enough as 1 CS put in a total team effort and moved out front with a 20-pin advantage.
Game two was the tale of the star bowlers with Riddle and Snyder going strike for strike; Snyder won the small battle by beating Riddle, 235 to 234. Unfortunately, Snyder's teammates weren't keeping up with him in this game, and 1 CS won that part of the war by 107 pins. The GCIC team had a monumental task ahead of them because the deficit was now 127 pins, but they put on quite a show by slapping 1 CS in game three, but in the end fell 48 pins shy of the Promised Land.
For the second year in a row, the lowest seed entering the final four, 1 CS, took home the trophy and the title of base champion.