Going for gold: Local Special Olympians receive medals for bowling

MOSES LAKE — Dozens of Special Olympic athletes from the Columbia Basin took home nearly 50 medals for their bowling season this year and were honored at a small ceremony Tuesday at Lake Bowl.

The Othello and Moses Lake Special Olympics bowling teams were combined this year, bringing together 51 bowlers, because Moses Lake didn’t have a coach and Othello didn’t have a bowling alley.

Pam Schmidt, who coached the combined team, coached the Othello Dream Team Special Olympics for seven years. She was named the East Region Coach of the Year by Special Olympics Washington and was surprised with the plaque and flowers at a ceremony at Lake Bowl on Nov. 17.

“You guys make it easy to be coach of the year,” Schmidt said at the ceremony.

Joy Bauman, whose son, Kyle Bauman, participates in the Special Olympics bowling team, said Schmidt “goes above and beyond.” She explained how much work Schmidt put in within the last year to not only coach two teams at once but to make sure they could continue to meet and practice in a COVID-19 friendly way.

Between the 51 bowlers, in the individual and team categories, they earned 20 gold, 18 silver and 10 bronze medals.

Moses Lake Police Department Chief Kevin Fuhr gave each medal to each participant. After the ceremony, there was a raffle for the bowlers to win an assortment of Special Olympics items, from water bottles to gloves and even aprons.

The full results:

In the individual category, the participants who won gold were: Rita Vialpando, Caleb Alamos, Jared Grant, Josh Lembcke, James Hughes, David Kenney and Tyler Hare.

In the individual category, the participants who won silver were Karissa Reed, Megan Lembcke, Jesse Wilson, Richard Heckly and Jose (Beto) Gonzalez.

Christi Lewis, Shannon Kemper and Carama Waters also were participants in the individual category.

In the team of two categories, the participants who won gold were Martin Solis and Eddie Solis, Kyle Bauman and Colton Schmidt and Alice Ness and Ken Ditzel.

In the team of two categories the participants who won silver were Narciso (Cruz) Macugay and Jesus Lopez and Jeff Dingfield and Dan Hagerup.

In the team of two categories, the participants who won bronze were Douglas Conklin and Roddy Roe.

The teams of four categories were split into Divisions 5 and 6. In Division 5, the ML Beasts team won gold and consisted of Ben Klockers, Ivy Dauber, Sarah Flippen and Daniel Valdez. In Division 6, the ML Rockin’ Bowlers team won gold and consisted of Scott Carter, Chase Klenz, Jesus Pimental and Joanna Flagan.

In Division 5, the ML Village People team won silver and were James Smith, Levi Gilmore, Holly Sainsbury and Mariah Sainsbury. In Division 6, the ML Panthers team won silver and were Brian Hughes, Donna Camyn, Ben Thornton and Marc Wilson.

In Division 5, the ML Christians team won bronze and were Kassandra Sandgren, Becky Jones, Alyssa Morris and Peytt’n Wilharm. In Division 6, the ML 3 Kings and a Queen team won bronze and were Mark Fiess, Gabe Martin, Jon Merritts and Kathy Harker.

Rebecca Pettingill can be reached via email at rpettingill@columbiabasinherald.com.