By the time the spring thaw comes and the city’s bowling houses will become a place of respite from the summer heat, Indiana Tech men’s bowling coach Larry Secrist will be in search of a new anchor man.

Since the Tech bowling program started three years ago, Tony Henry has been the man at the bottom of the five-man lineup but at the top of the statistics. The former Bishop Dwenger standout led the Warriors as a sophomore, a junior, and his 198.39 average through 41 games this year has him nearly 12 pins ahead of his nearest teammate and fellow senior Jaiden Metzger.

“He was the one that everybody looked up to,” Secrist said of Henry. “He’s anchored for me for all three years. When times got tough, he’s the one who came through. And he’s helped in recruiting a lot.”

Just as there are recruits for other college sports, Indiana Tech recruits bowlers for its program. And Secrist listens to Henry’s evaluations as though he were an assistant coach.

Henry guesses he began sailing the 10-pounders down the alleys when he was 7 or 8 years old. Kid liked it so much that he became a regular at Pro Bowl West. By the time he was 12, he had his first 200 game at Georgetown.

This year, in a league match at Lakeside while not wearing the Indiana Tech orange and black, he rolled a three-game series of 867, shooting games of 300, 268 and 299.

And how many sanctioned 300 games has he had?

“I haven’t been keeping track, there have been so many,” Henry says. “I think 12.”

With three events left, including Saturday’s Blue and Gold Classic at Notre Dame, the Tech season is nearing an end. The Warriors will compete in the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference championships Feb. 9 in Grandville, Mich., then finish with the Backhaul regional tournament in Indianapolis.

When that’s done, and he establishes the bar for all Tech bowlers to follow, Henry will take his business management degree into the workforce.

Maybe.

“I’d like to get a good job, get some money saved up, and go to some (professional) events,” Henry said. “I want to try it, at least. It’s my dream.”

5 Warriors place

Freshman Taylor DeLong finished second in the 184-pound class to lead the Indiana Tech delegation at the recent Spartan Mat Classic at Manchester.

Other Tech wrestlers who placed in the top five were Cameron Whitten and Novric Reese (125), Brent Browner (157) and Andre Dunn (285).