On Wednesday night, Campus Recreation hosted a bowling party for University of Missouri-St. Louis students. Susan Dibb, coordinator of recreation and intramurals for Campus Recreation was in charge of the event.
“Last year was our first time having the bowling party,” Dibb said. “We had such a great turnout, we decided to do it again.” Dibb holds a bowling league in the daytime, and last year she decided to start the bowling party because she felt the students would enjoy the less competitive atmosphere.
The event was held at North Oaks Bowl, which is down the street from the university on Natural Bridge at Lucas & Hunt. About 25 students came out of the rain into the dimly lit bowling alley, stood in line for bowling shoes, and conversed for a while before the bowling games got underway. While chomping of the first round of pizza and soda, (courtesy Campus Recreation), most of the students admitted they did not know how to bowl.
Michael Ashley, junior, information systems, said he came out because he needed some relaxation from exams. “I thought it was a good way to spend time with my friends,” Ashley said. “We all pay for [these activities] with our activity fees, so why not?”
There were about 16 lanes reserved for UM-St. Louis students. Soon everyone broke up into groups and the bowling games commenced. In the beginning there was little competition, rather just laughs when one of the students missed or had a gutter ball. After a while, the trash-talking got underway and the friendly competition began.
Gabriel Santos, senior, international business and marketing, said that he was going to win his bowling game. “For sure I’m going win. I don’t give [a] chance to my competitors,” he said while laughing.
The students’ cheers drowned out the noises at the bowling alley each time someone bowled a strike or a spare. Even with competition turned up a notch, some students still bowled gutter balls, and the scoreboard screen displayed a sad bowling ball as the balls got close to the pins and slid over to the side into the gutter.
“I’m probably going to win,” said Ashley. “It’s not that I’m good, it’s just that my friends are really bad.”
Friendly competition aside, the students enjoyed the night away from studying for exams. Despite early technical difficulties, such as the electronic scorecard on one of the lanes malfunctioning and one lane not working, the students had a good time.
This event was part of Campus Recreation‘s RecTreks, an ongoing series of outing’s for UM-St. Louis students. Their next one will be lazer tag and demolition ball on November 12 at the Adrenaline Zone in St. Charles, MO.
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