Alex Inglet won his second consecutive national championship over the weekend at the United States Bowler’s Congress Tournament held in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

“I won by 70 pins,” said Inglet, during a telephone interview Monday morning. “They said I was only the second person to do that in tournament history.” 

He tried three years, unsuccessfully, to qualify for the national competition and the past two years has come home with the crystal trophy.

Inglet has been a regular at Preston’s lone bowling alley, Pop’n Pin Lanes, with old wood lanes and no automatic scoring. “It’s always a challenge to bowl in other places with more modern facilities,” he said. 

“This is unbelievable and is the best word I can think of to describe my feelings right now,” he said after winning the trophy.

Inglet packed up his bowling balls, shirts and shoes for the long drive to Green Bay with his daughter, Valerie, to defend his national bowling title.

A year ago the Preston bowler went into the competition as an underdog, competing with the big city boys from all 50 states.

This year he was under a lot of pressure as the guy to beat.

The USBC attracts the world’s top senior bowlers, age 50 and older, to compete for national titles in the Senior Masters and Senior Queens. The Summer Team USA Trials feature elite-level athletes competing for spots on Team USA.

The Senior Championship is a national event for bowlers who have qualified through their state’s senior tournament.

Last year nationals were held in Reno, Nevada, when Inglet said he hit a hot streak, which carried him on to win the trophy. He was pretty excited to have his name in a national bowling publication. It was in there again this year.

He gave a lot of credit for last year’s win to his daughter, Misty, who accompanied him to the finals.

“Misty would watch me bowl and critique me and tell me what I was doing wrong,” he said. “She would watch me and tell me what to do next. She watched my form and corrected what I was doing wrong. I wouldn’t have won it if she hadn’t been there.”

This year his oldest daughter, Valerie, coached him and she worked the same magic.

Inglet said bowling at a competitive level is a little tricky. There are freshly oiled lanes and older ones and it is a challenge to bowl on them both. They each require different strategies.

Inglet spends hours at Pop’n Pin Lanes throwing the ball with Preston’s best bowlers. At the national tournament he went up against people from big cities and big states.

“I was talking to guys I was going up against and they were all big-city bowlers,” he said. “They were from places like New York and Chicago. They had 10 different bowling balls. I was from Preston and I only took three.”

He said last year he was just hoping he wouldn’t embarrass himself with all the big-name bowlers he was going up against. The first day he finished in the 20th spot the second day he was eighth place. The last day he took the win.

“Not many people in Preston have a national championship in anything and now I have two in bowling,” he said. “I think that kind of says something.”