DOVER, Del. — Tenpin bowler Abigail Ticknor of Millington has been putting up big numbers since the beginning of December.
Ticknor, 11, who will become the first-ever Kent County resident to compete at the United States Bowling Congress Junior Gold Championships in July, has averaged a 152.7 over her past six league weeks (18 games) in the Doverama Youth League’s varsity division in Dover, Delaware.
She has achieved several personal milestones along the way.
During league competition on Dec. 7, Ticknor capped off her three-game series with a 203 — her second-highest single game ever and her second-ever 200 game. She had four strikes and six spares in the game and left just one pin standing.
The very next week, she recorded her first-ever 500 series with game scores of 198, 135 and 176 for a total of 509. In the first game of the series, she again left just one pin standing, this time throwing five strikes and five spares.
All told, since the beginning of December — between league and tournament play — Ticknor has thrown eight of her 10 highest-scoring sanctioned games and five of her seven highest-scoring sanctioned series. She has raised her league season average an impressive nine pins over that span, from a 125.6 to a 134.6.
The USBC Junior Gold Championships are held annually for the top youth bowlers in the country across three age divisions each for girls and boys — U12, U15 and U18.
Ticknor punched her ticket to the 2025 championships, which will be held in and around Green Bay, Wisconsin, with a third-place finish in a qualifying tournament back in September.
Center assignments for the Junior Gold Championships were announced Jan. 7 when registration officially opened.
After three days of on-site practice, Ticknor and the other entrants in the U12 girls division will begin four days of qualifying round play July 14 at Ashwaubenon Bowling Alley in Green Bay. She will alternate days between that center and Dale’s Weston Lanes in Weston.
Each qualifying round will consist of four games, with roughly the top one-seventh of the field across the full 16 games advancing to subsequent rounds July 18-19.
With the exception of 2020, the USBC Junior Gold Championships have been held every year since 1998. While bowlers from neighboring Queen Anne’s and Cecil counties have competed in the event in the past, Ticknor will be the first from Kent County to do so.
Ticknor is one of seven bowlers from the Doverama Youth League to qualify for the Junior Gold Championships thus far this season. Among the other six is one of Ticknor’s league teammates, Saige Boone of Smyrna, Delaware, who qualified last month.
