Family: Parents, Dale and Rita, brother Justin (24).
Favorite athlete: Percy Harvin.
Favorite team: Minnesota Vikings
Best bowler faced: Cliff Kuckelburg of Aberdeen.
Future plans: Currently a junior at Minnesota State, Mankato, majoring in manufacturing engineering technology, graduating spring of 2015.
Favorite athletic memory:"Going to state championship in football with Aberdeen Central in 2009."
Being able to overcome bad games has helped Dale Boynton Jr. attain good results.
Bowling for the Minnesota State, Mankato, team at the Glen Carlson Invitational in Las Vegas, Nev., Boynton finished second overall in a field of 250 bowlers from colleges across the country and helped his team to a 12th-place finish. His tournament included a 300 game, his second sanctioned 300.
For his efforts, Boynton is the American News Athlete of the Week.
The tournament was broken into two-day segments, Dec. 17-18 and Dec. 19-20. Boynton said his best efforts came during the latter two days. Overall, he bowled nine games and his 300 game came on Dec. 19. His average for the nine games was 215.
Along with the good games, Boynton had his share of bad ones, as well. His low during the nine games was 177. In the game before his 300, he rolled a 198. A bowler has to be mentally prepared to deal with any bad games, he said.
"You have to have a pretty strong mental game," he said. "You're always going to have rougher games and you always have to bounce back."
During the tournament, a bowler couldn't get too comfortable or used to bowling on one lane because each game was bowled on a different lane, he said.
Boynton's teammates hail from a variety of places, including Sioux Falls, Minnesota and Ohio. Bowlers have to go through a tryout to gain membership on the squad. Chemistry is an important asset of the team.
"You bowl nine games, and the coaches pick people who will work together," Boynton said. "The coaches make sure you are good teammates and not just good bowlers."
The team has competed in various locations this season, including tournaments in Wisconsin, Indianapolis and South Bend, Ind. The sectional tournament at the end of the year will be in the St. Louis area. The top four teams from that event move on to the national tournament, where there is individual and team competition.
Boynton, 21, said that consistency is a key to being a successful bowler.
"I've seen people who, while their form isn't the greatest but they make it work because they hit the marks they are aiming for, and that makes a huge difference," Boynton said.
The sport of bowling runs his family, as his father and mother both compete, as does his brother. His grandmother, Nancy, is a member of the Aberdeen Bowling Hall of Fame. His family and his coach at Mankato, Scott Anderson, have all influenced his game.
"My coach helped me a lot this year, he's very good," Boynton said. "He is very finicky and wants the best form he can get. He is always looking to improve us individually during practice."
Boynton received a glass plaque for his second-place finish in Las Vegas, but he is not finished trying to improve his game.
"There's always a drive to do more," he said. "You can always shoot a 900 series, only 16 people in the world have done that. I want to keep striving for more and get better scores."
