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'I stayed composed': Gahanna Lincoln High School bowler Mitchell Genson rolls 300 game
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- 'I stayed composed': Gahanna Lincoln High School bowler Mitchell Genson rolls 300 game
By the time Mitchell Genson started thinking about bowling his first sanctioned 300 game, most of the work was done.
The Gahanna Lincoln sophomore – one of central Ohio's top bowlers – pulled off perfection Sunday, rolling a 300 in the first game of a match against Cincinnati Walnut Hills at HP Lanes.
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"It was not until the 10th (and final frame) that I began thinking I could get a 300," Genson said. "I stayed composed throughout the entire game, not allowing myself to overthink too much and just throw a good shot."
Genson, who bowled a 300 in practice last summer, finished with a 534 two-game series Sunday as the Lions beat Walnut Hills 2,368-1,918.
Junior Mitchell Genson leads a deep lineup for the Gahanna Lincoln boys team.
"I (was) relieved, excited, happy," he said. "It was just great to celebrate with my coaches and teammates as they are a huge part of my success."
Genson entered Monday averaging 226.1 pins per game, leading the Central Ohio High School Bowling Conference by 1.8 pins ahead of Reynoldsburg junior Quinn Dean. Dean and Genson have exchanged the top spot several times in recent weeks.
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Genson's 300 was the second in Gahanna history. Nathan Minzler bowled the first on Feb. 3, 2019.
Genson is one of several high-scoring bowlers in a deep lineup for the Lions (10-1, 7-1 COHSBC-A, 3-0 OCC-Ohio), who lead the COHSBC with an average of 1,027.3 pins per game.
"We had a feeling that at least one person would roll a perfect game this season; we just weren't sure who that one person would be," coach Yvonne Quiero said. "(Genson) liked the ball he threw before the match … what he was throwing at the time looked good, so we stuck with it and that's where we ended up."
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Quiero said she and Genson's teammates treaded lightly as the game progressed.
"We tried not to get too overly anxious because we didn't want to make him too anxious either," Quiero said. "As a coach, I start paying attention when they hit about seven (strikes) in a row because that's typically where we see them nervous and things start to come apart from a nerves perspective. It becomes harder to focus and execute a shot.
"We just kept doing what we always do, which was not to put too much focus on him and let him do his thing. Nobody said anything out of the norm … but people around started to pay attention as well. Around the ninth frame, people stopped to watch. That still didn't break his focus."
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: OHSAA bowling: Gahanna Lincoln's Mitchell Genson rolls 300 game
