Thomas Jefferson bowler crowned national champ

Over the last month an a half, Thomas Jefferson High School freshman Laelah Tiquia has battled immense adversity. For starters, Joe Townsend — a coach, close friend and mentor — suddenly died just over two months ago on April 30.

In Tiquia’s first season, the Raiders won their first ever bowling state title under Townsend this past March and were preparing to head to Fort Wayne, Indiana, to bowl in the U.S. High School Bowling National Tournament June 7-9, when the team found out their coach had died.

Against all odds, Tiquia was crowned the Singles National Champion on June 9, outlasting Malia Briggs from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, at Pro Bowl West Lanes.

“For the last couple of years bowling, I had to build a good mental game. When Coach Joe passed, it was almost the motivation. The anger of him not being there was what pulled me together,” Tiquia said. “That’s where my motivation came from. Everything has always been for him.”

Tiquia has some experience bowling at the national level individually, but as far as being on a team, that was a whole other level.

“This one meant something to me with the pressure and with him (Joe) not being there to cool me down. Coach Michaela saw me shaking and I wasn’t able to talk, but I circled back to what Coach Joe taught me and it really helped with all the emotions going on,” Tiquia said.

Even just getting a good night’s sleep was a challenge in the Hoosier State, but a challenge that Tiquia was able to overcome.

“It was a long weekend. I don’t think I got more than five hours of sleep during any of the nights,” Tiquia said.

The singles competition began with 237 bowlers and went to 90 bowlers. That was then cut to 30, and eventually 10, and then four, and finally the top two. Tiquia was outside the top 20 after her first four games — she had a lot of ground to make up. But it was all about playing one game at a time.

As far as the field looked, it was very East Coast centered. The only other placer from the west side of the Mississippi River was Jaelynn Vohland of Dallas High School in Dallas, Oregon. Vohland finished 38th, just narrowly missing the second cut.

In the final, Tiquia wanted to bowl first. Because she wasn’t the number one seed, it wasn’t her choice. But Briggs granted her that choice and Tiquia never looked back. In the 10th frame, she needed at the minimum a spare and a nine. Tiquia went strike-strike and clinched her second ever national championship.

Townsend and Laelah had a special bond. Tiquia’s older sister Jazel bowled at Todd Beamer High School. Townsend would always talk with her about her skills and made a point of emphasis to bring the bowling community together.

Tiquia had little doubt that Townsend was looking down at her, proud of what she had accomplished.

In terms of performance, Tiquia making the second round was impressive enough. She finished 21st in the initial cut, while teammates Alena McDugle and 3A State Champ Samyia Gildon also made their way above the first cut line. But after the top 90, Tiquia was on her own.

She was even alone in her final round beside her coach Michaela Swiney, as Thomas Jefferson Athletic Director Courtney McCurry was heading to the airport with the rest of the Raiders.

“Miss McCurry started screaming in the van ‘Laelah won! Laelah won!’ Then Lyla (Smith) called me and asked me ‘Did you actually win?’ It was cool because they were still an hour away from the airport,” Tiquia said.

When the field was cut to the final four, Tiquia had the fourth qualifier. Her pin total was 2,189 and if not for a 280 game in her 10th game of the tournament, her day might have ended early.

“I thought I needed a 250 to get into the cut, but I just wanted to go out there and throw good shots. I didn’t want to try too hard,” Tiquia said.

But 280 was enough to put her into the second to last cut. From there, the bottom three battled for the second spot in the finals to take on Briggs.

“After I bowled that 280, there was no way I was going to let myself lose. I had worked so hard to get myself to the top four,” Tiquia said.

Tiquia clinched her spot in the finals with a 248 performance and faced Briggs, who at the time had 290K followers on her bowling Instagram account. Due to just her sheer popularity, Tiquia felt like the underdog, and in more ways than not, she absolutely was. But that didn’t change her mentality one bit.

“It was a statement to win against Briggs. When she posted she was second, everyone was like ‘What?!’ I don’t think anyone, even myself, thought I was going to win. I was fully prepared to not make it past the top four. It was really cool to seal the deal against a girl who was so well known,” Tiquia said.

Winning a trophy, traveling without family for an extended amount of time, for the first time, and doing it with the memory of her coach in the back of her mind is a lot for any high school kid. But for Tiquia and the support staff she has, they had her back and she needed every last bit of it.

“He’s taught me so much. I think it hurt my mom most because he was so good to her kids, my sister, my little brother and me. Seeing the impact he made and how emotional all of us were, not just me. He’s always teaching something beyond bowling, beyond the mental game,” Tiquia said.