Home lanes advantage paid off for a quartet of Vernon teams.
Lincoln Lanes hosted the Youth Bowling Championship zone finals which included teams from Vernon, Salmon Arm, Kelowna, and Kamloops.
The top team from each division advances to the provincial finals March 1 and 2 in Chase and Kamloops.
Lincoln's senior boys team of Lukas Rachwalski and Colton Dranchuk, coached by Kara Kazimer, finished in first place with a five-game total score of 2,104. Rachwalski and Dranchuk were down 150 pins going into Game 4 before rallying for gold in the last game.
Rachwalski finished that last game with a 285 and a 'four-bagger' (four strikes in a row) to stop any comeback thoughts from their opponents.
They were joined as zone winners by the senior girls duo of Sierra Merry and Charleigh Lemay, coached by Natalie Young. Merry and Lemay took the title with an identical 2,104 score over five games, winning by just 21 pins.
The junior boys pair of brothers Axl and Talan Rachwalski, coached by dad Trevor Rachwalski, won gold with a five-game, 2,203 total. Axl, at age 11, averaged 235 during the zones.
And the bantam boys team of Trentyn Birmingham and Ryker Schnyder, coached by Ryker's grandfather, Paul Schnyder, took first place with a five-game score of 1,285. Ryker recorded the highest game of his young career, a 230, and his first four-bagger.
The bantam boys No.2 team of Lukas Bryant and Ian Klingman, coached by Paul Schnyder, came second with a 1,191 total, less than 100 pins behind their clubmates.
