Marshfield Native Trains for UW-Whitewater Bowling Team

Local College Athlete Shares Importance of Practice During Pandemic

Taylor Purgett, a rising junior at UW-Whitewater and Marshfield native, has found a way to practice her sport amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

Purgett, a member of the UW-Whitewater bowling team, says practicing is important even though the 2020-2021 season will be impacted by the pandemic. She practices a few times per week so that when collegiate bowling does resume, she will be ready to compete.

Purgett has been bowling since she was three years old, and it is something that she has been able to do with her family. Her father coached her until she went to college, and she often bowled in tournaments with her sister, Jessica, who later bowled for Mount Mercy University.

In her younger years, Purgett would compete at tournaments around Wisconsin and Minnesota. As she got older, she and her family traveled all over the United States for the Junior Gold Youth National Bowling Tournament. In 2017, Purgett averaged 186.95 pins per game throughout the week-long tournament. She finished 90th out of 840 participants.

When applying for college, UW-Whitewater was an obvious choice for Purgett. Its business school has a great reputation, and the women’s bowling team is one of the best in the country. Now, Purgett is majoring in Criminology with a minor in Finance. She says her dream job would be to work for the FBI one day.

In November of 2019, Purgett was awarded the “Bowler of the Month” title by the Central Intercollegiate Bowling Conference. During that month, Purgett had stellar performances at two separate tournaments that gained her the title. At the Warhawk Classic, she placed second out of eighty-four bowlers, averaging a 206 pins per game throughout the three day event. One week later, she placed eleventh out of 110 bowlers at the SFA Ladyjack Hammer Open in Kenosha, Wisconsin. There, she averaged 208.4 pins per game.

Purgett says that her favorite memory of bowling at Whitewater is winning the Warhawk Open in December of 2019. “It really showed that all the practicing paid off,” she noted. She continues to practice so she can be ready to dominate the competition once collegiate bowling resumes.

We welcome your stories! Contact us at [email protected]!