Winnipeg trio taking on bowling world

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This article was published 28/08/2023 (1016 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Marisa Naylor will be making her second trip to the World Tenpin Bowling Championships this fall and she’ll have the company of two other Winnipeggers — Mitch Hupé and Austyn Ducharme — when she leaves for Kuwait.

The trio will form perhaps the largest Manitoba contingent at the worlds ever.

Naylor, 25, debuted with a 20th-place finish in the women’s singles at the 2022 championships in Peru. She was the second best Canadian woman at the event.

“Going to Peru last year really reassured me that I was on the right stage and I belong there,” said Naylor, a communications manager for St. John’s College on the University of Manitoba campus. “I think this year I’ll be able to take that experience and even lead the team a little bit with having three rookies on the team.”

Naylor will head to worlds, slated for Oct. 1-14, brimming with confidence.

“I know what to expect, especially being at worlds and I went to worlds as a youth (bowler) in 2018,” she said. “So having that experience will be beneficial for dealing with nerves but also knowing what to expect and performing. From a women’s standpoint, we definitely want to medal but we also want to have a good performance for qualification for other tournaments coming up.”

Naylor will be joined on the Canadian women’s squad by Karine Bouchard of Milles-Iles, Que., Jade Cote, Farnham, Que., Montreal’s Brittney Turcotte, Jennifer Besana of Richmond Hill, Ont., and Calgary’s Samantha How.

Hupé and Ducharme will lead a group of Canadian men that also includes Francois Lavoie of Quebec City, Darren Alexander of Essex, Ont., Jordan Jones and Nathan Ruest-Lajoie of Temiscouata-Sur-Le-Lac, Que.

Hupé, who also competes on the Professional Bowlers Tour, was the top male competitor at the Canadian Tenpin Federation’s team trials in January.

The 25-year-old Ducharme was fourth in qualifying, signalling a return to the elite level of the sport after playing volleyball and studying at Medicine Hat College Rattlers for four years.

“I’m definitely at that level where I could bowl professionally,” said Ducharme. “I’m getting back into things now. I took four years off from my competitive bowling to go play competitive volleyball because I went and played college. Bowling is my No. 1 priority now.”

Ducharme’s confidence has been buoyed by an excellent performance in May at the Pan American Championship in the Dominican Republic where he combined with Graham Fach of Guelph, Ont., to earn a bronze in doubles and a silver in trios.

“There’s a lot of be learned by bowling against the best bowlers in the world,” said Ducharme. “It’s going to give me a better look at where I can potentially rank against those types of people. I really don’t have my expectations set overly high because I don’t really know what to expect when I get out there. I’ll take what’s given to me and see if I can help my team win some medals and go from there.”

Training with Hupé, in his ninth year with the national team, has been extremely beneficial for Ducharme.

“I’ve gotten a lot better in the last year and a half because Mitch is home a lot more and him and I are able to go to the lanes and practise a lot more,” said Ducharme, who also won the Manitoba Open title earlier this year. “He’s able to work with me on things that he feels I’m lacking on. So that’s kind of nice. … He’s kinda like an older brother to me.”

The 28-year-old Hupé should be a medal contender. Attending his fifth world championships, he has medalled four times previously, including a gold in the 2018 masters event in Hong Kong.

He also recently earned his first PBA tour victory, teaming with Patrick Hanrahan to win the top prize of US$20,000 at the Roth/Holman Doubles Championship in Middletown, Del.

Hupé has two other top three PBA finishes, including a third-place finish at an event in Kuwait in 2019.

“It’s a pretty big deal,” said Hupé, who also works in IT for Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries. “There’s only so many people that become PBA titleists, so to be on that list is pretty cool. There’s only 10 events or so a year so you only get 10 opportunities to join that club.”

Hupé is thinking big in the men’s team competition, where the Canadians earned a best-ever third-place finish in 2018.

“I think a team gold medal is our goal as a group,” said Hupé. “It’s probably one of the harder ones to win because you need all five players to be at their best and it’s an event we’ve slowly become more of a factor in. So to win that one would be on our bucket list.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca