Pins crashing, crowds cheering, the sound of victory and defeat. This was the noise that was heard throughout a bowling alley in Wichita on Jan. 8 when the Derby bowling team competed against Andover Central and Maize South at Northrock Lanes.

Unfortunately, many of the lanes at Northrock that day were extremely dry, causing a lot of problems for team members.

For those who aren’t educated on the art of bowling, a lot of experienced bowlers have balls that curve, or “hook” in bowling lingo, when they hit dry spots on the lane. If the lane hasn’t been oiled for a while, the entire thing becomes dry, rather than just spotty, causing the ball to hook much earlier than when it needs to and making it difficult to hit the perfect spot to where one would strike.

For example, senior Garrett Bolden had two good games on Monday, but he also had a game of 116 — his average is 210.

“It’s been a very long time since I’ve had such a low score; a few years maybe. I was honestly kind of mad at myself, but it just comes down to picking up spares,” he said.

Keeping a positive outlook and not getting down on yourself is a key to success in bowling. Mental strength when it’s tough is important.

“Sometimes you get knocked down but you got to get back up. We all have bad games. We just need to recover. I’m going to take this as a learning lesson and improve from it rather than hold onto it. There’s always more tournaments,” Garrett said.

He couldn’t be more right.