Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 18, 1994 TAG: 9407180056
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The pins didn't know the difference.
Three years after turning her attention away from softball, Mizzell rolled a 182 in the championship match Sunday at All-Star Lanes to defeat qualifying leader Annette Hovanec by nine pins.
Mizzell, the No. 3 qualifier, advanced to the final by beating Terri Beasley 206-172 in Sunday's first match.
"I didn't expect to win," said Mizzell, 31-year-old sales manager for a firm that manufactures excavating equipment, "but I knew when I walked in the door today that I had a medal. That took off a lot of the pressure."
Mizzell, who represents Tri-Cities Lanes in Petersburg, said she didn't start bowling until she got married, although her husband, Larry, isn't a tournament bowler.
"He does it for fun with me; we bowl one night a week together," she said. "My mom's been bowling for years, but I never had much of an interest in it. Bowling never came up."
A bowler uses some of the same mechanics as a pitcher in slow-pitch softball, but Mizzell was a fast-pitch outfielder.
"I was a hitter and a thrower," she said. "I could throw the ball all the way from center field to home plate. That's why they stuck me out there; I had an arm."
Mizzell, who is 6 feet 2 1/2, also played center in basketball.
"I think [the height] helps my bowling because of the arm reach," she said, "but you have to get down at the [foul] line, and that's a disadvantage with long legs."
Although she didn't consider herself anything special as a beginning bowler - "I had no skill, no nothing," Mizzell said Sunday - many would have been satisfied with a first-year average in the 140-150 range. Mizzell improved to 172 during the winter and is up to 188 for the summer.
"When I started out, I was bowling conventional style, straight down [and] using a 13-pound ball," she said. "I've really started taking it seriously in equipment, style and approach over the past six to nine months.
"I've had six months of coaching, and only in the last month have I worked out a comfortable approach so I can deliver the ball properly. This was my true test"
Mizzell averaged 186 for six games of qualifying Saturday, and Sunday's two roll-offs lifted her to 188 for the weekend.
"My goal is to be at 200 when I walk in this door next year," she said.
Mizzell isn't sure she likes the TV format - Hovanec had the more valid gripe after seeing a 115-pin qualifying advantage nullified by one match - but Mizzell definitely intends to defend her crown.
"Nobody here had really seen me before, so I guess this was pretty much of a surprise," she said. "They don't know how hard I work. I practice every day but Sunday and an occasional Saturday. It takes a lot of determination just to get to this level."
\ NOTES: June Wilhelm, treasurer of the Roanoke Valley Women's Bowling Association, closed with a 223 to win the title in the women's Senior B (55-64) division. . . . Mildred Clark of Vinton won the women's Senior A (65 and older) division for the second year in a row. . . . Norfolk's John McCaughan, who underwent a heart transplant less than three years ago, had a 254 in the final to win his second consecutive men's Senior B gold medal. . . . Robert Hupmann, a junior from Staunton, rolled the high game of the competition - a 269 on Saturday.
by CNB