Portage la Prairie bowlers Trevor Hustins, Rick Bowser, and Danielle MacIntyre are headed to Calgary for the Inter-Provincial Five-Pin Bowling Team Challenge National Championship later this month.

Hustins and MacIntyre both bowl in the Wednesday night Southport's Jolly Tyme Mixed League, while Bowser bowls Thursdays in the Elk Mixed League. Their coach Al Lightfoot is the proprietor of the bowling lanes in Southport. They will also be joined by Minnedosa bowler Vivian Cullen. They won the opportunity to represent central Manitoba by finishing first among the eight teams from the Central and Westman Zones.

"We're flying into Calgary on the 26th of April and Trevor is driving in, and the tournament starts on the 28th," says Lightfoot. "There will be two pools, Pool A and Pool B, our team will be in Pool A because we won the province and the team from Minnedosa will be Pool B. Each pool will complete their round-robin round, then the top two teams from each pool will face off, and the winners will go for the national championship. Last year it was about $3,500 the team would win."

Bowser and Huskins are the rookies on the team, as MacIntyre's been to the National Championship once before.

"I've bowled for quite a while," says Bowser, who's been in Portage since 1967'. "I took a break and got back into it a couple of years ago. It's my first time going to nationals and I've been to provincial tournaments before for all kinds of sports but I've never been to a national championship so this is a real high for me."

"It's quite exhilarating to be heading to this event," says Hustins. "We all bowled really well at Provincials, as best as we could I guess, and the team I finished with ended up in fifth place and I was asked to join this team for the competition."

Lightfoot says he just wants the team to get out there, try their best, and make sure to have fun. Find out more about the event here.