The U.S. Bowling Congress tournament checks have been distributed. I hope you made it to last year's tournament and are cashing a check.

The prize fund was $5.5 million, and 11,000 teams and 35,888 individual bowlers will get a check.

It was good to see that a number of charities also will be receiving money, with portions of the tournament entry going toward good causes like the Earl Anthony Memorial Scholarship Fund, Bowlers to Veterans Link and Bowl for the Cure.

Here are some other interesting statistics from the tournament, compliments of bowl.com.

• There were 31 perfect games, 11 299s, two 298s and 27 11-strikes-in-a-row games.

• Regular division bowlers averaged 177.31 and classified bowlers averaged 155.03.

• There were 555,408 games bowled, 41,966 of those were clean games.

Trivia question

True or false: there were 95,472,472 pins toppled during the 2008 USBC Tournament. Answer at the end of the column.

High school follow-up

Last week, I wrote about high school bowling and the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Bowling League. Teams from Mars and Karns City will be involved in the WPIBL this season.

It turns out that bowling was the largest-growing high school sport in the 2007-2008 school year. More than 52,000 students competed from 4,656 schools offering high school bowling competition, representing a 16 percent increase from the 2006-07 season. Participation has nearly tripled since the 1998-99 school season. Lacrosse showed the second-largest participation increase at 14 percent.

Tip of the Week

We will still see some warm weather in the early part of the bowling season, so keep some things in mind as you head to the lanes for league night.

The warmer weather could cause the bowling centers to be a little warmer as well, thus affecting lane conditions to some extent. This usually results in lane oil drying a bit quicker. Be ready to make a move on the lane to keep the ball in some oil.

The warmer conditions also could create some moisture on your bowling shoes, which then could be transferred to lane approaches. Be sure to check the soles of your shoes before you hit the approaches.

Top scores

• Larry Wagner had the top game of 257 in the Armco A league, but Greg Buck had high triple honors with a 592.

• Sandy Mickey rolled a 194 to top all bowlers in the Coins League. Vicki Stevick had the high triple of 519.

• Shane Ozella rolled a 279 game and a 710 series to lead the Firearms League. Josh Hinchberger tossed a 222. Kristi Erkens led the ladies with a 196 (534),

• Don Bender led the Mike Kelly Auto League with a 257. Also bowling well were Dan Manning 248 (615), Jim Blurton 246 (674) and Ken Schontz with a 640 series.

Bowlers needed

The Armco A league is in need of bowlers. The league bowls at Family Bowlaway at 6 p.m. Thursday nights. Stop by the lanes if interested.

Submissions

If you would like to contribute to this column, my e-mail is wiseguyrondo@zoominternet.net.

Trivia answer

True

Ron Willison is the bowling columnist for the Butler Eagle.