“I didn’t know anything about it until Lori (Reasoner) called and asked me if I wanted to bowl,” Graham said. “With the holidays, I’ve only had a few weeks of league, and I figured I could use some practice.”
The following day, Graham was at Victory Lanes for the six-game qualifying round. She was in sixth place when the field was cut to the Top 10 Saturday night.
“The lane conditions were difficult,” she said. “It was definitely a grind.”
Graham knew she needed to make some adjustments and returned Sunday with a different ball. While the conditions were similar, the outcome was better for the Dayton bowler who climbed to the top of the standings after four more games. When the field was cut to the Top 5 for the stepladder finals, Graham was No. 1 with 758 with Tori Miller close behind with 742.
Graham played spectator for a bit while the bracket played out. Miller posted a solid 225-179 win over third-seeded Danielle Crowder to set up the final match between the top two seeds with the tiara on the line.
In the tight championship match, Graham gained a slight advantage with a strike and a spare in the 10th frame, just enough to edge out Miller 164-156 for the title.
“I was surprised by the conditions, the lanes were tough and 200 games were few and far between,” Graham, 55, said. “But it was good to bowl in it, I feel like it made me a little sharper.”
The challenging U.S. Open pattern also gave the eventual champion plenty of opportunities to work on her spares. And bowling 11 games in 24 hours was just the practice she had hoped for.
“I hadn’t bowled that many games together in quite a while,” Graham said. “It’s hard to get good practice in for a tournament like the state Queens, so this was great.”
And she has another sparkly tiara to add to those she has won at the Greater Dayton USBC Angie Kreitzer Queens Memorial Tournaments.
2026 Springfield Clark County USBC Queens Tournament Top Placers
1. Kari Graham
2. Tori Miller
3. Danielle Crowder
4. Courtney Reynolds
5. Stacy Steiner
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