AURELIUS - The shear joy that Geary Gioia took from his performance at Starlite Lanes Sunday afternoon was, to say the least, noticeable.

After rolling a solid game to win his match in The Citizen Masters, Gioia threw his hands in the air and let out a few “whoops.”

Gioia, 23, is known for getting really excited and being expressive with his happiness and the pure joy he gets from the game, whether it is the Masters or during league play every Monday night at Starlite.

“I'm a very expressive bowler,” Gioia, 23, said. “I'm really vocal and for me it just helps to get the adrenaline going. It is the way I've always been when I bowl. I think it's exciting and it just helps me bowl better.”

Gioia's expressive lane persona goes back to his first introduction to bowling while he was still in high school.

“I started with Cosmic Bowling,” Gioia said. “We used to go to the Polish Falcons for that - it was a lot of fun.”

But what was just a fun way to spend a Friday night, quickly turned into something else.

“One of my good friends in high school started to teach me how to really bowl,” Gioia said. “And I've been bowling ever since.”

Gioia went on to spend a couple year in the junior league at the Polish Falcons, where he worked on his game, improving steadily.

“It averaged probably around 165,” Gioia said. “The junior leagues helped me get better.”

When he was 20, Gioia made the transition up to the adult leagues.

For the past three years, he has been a fixture at Starlite Lanes, bowling in the Monday Night league.

“It has helped me bowl a lot better,” Gioia said. “Right now I'm averaging around 190.”

During his first year in the adult leagues, Gioia also racked up another milestone, throwing his first 300 game.

But it also marked his first appearance in The Citizen Masters.

“I just decided to go out for it and see how I did,” Gioia said. “I qualified with 613. I was low man on the totem pole. I won my first match and lost my next two. But it was a lot of fun and a really good experience.”

This year, Gioia cleared the qualifying mark with plenty of room to spare with a 694.

For Gioia, this in itself was a significant accomplishment.

“I just wanted to qualify,” Gioia said. “That was my only real goal this year. Anything else was just a bonus.”

And for the young bowler, there is a lot to take away from the experience.

“I like the competition,” Gioia said. “I am one of the younger guys here, so there is a lot of good competition with the other guys that have been here for a lot of years. It is a good way for me to get more experience.”

And for Gioia this is the perfect setting to push himself to improve his skills.

“I really do like the competition,” Gioia said. “I've always been a tournament bowler, compared to leagues. I just feel like I've always bowled a lot better in tournaments, I like the competitive aspect of it all.”

After his win Sunday, Gioia will move on to compete next weekend at the Falcon Lanes.

“This year I won my first two matches,” Gioia said. “And now I'm going to the Falcon's next week and we'll just see where it goes from there.”