If you don`t think bowling is one of the most intense sports in high school, picture yourself at the free-throw line, shooting one-and-one with the game on the line and an obnoxiously loud crowd that just won`t quit.
Multiply this by 10, the minimum number of times a bowler feels this pressure in a single game. The state championship strings together 12 games for those who reach the finals, and the spare a bowler failed to pick up in Game 1 means as much as the last frame of Game 12.
Palatine kept this in mind to such a degree Saturday at Circle Lanes that it set a state record, beating West Aurora 11,072 to 10,757. The pin total broke Rich Central`s 1983 record of 10,871 and gave Palatine its first state bowling title.
”This is as intense as any sport there is,” said Palatine coach Joe Petricca, who doubles as the school`s football coach. ”I`ve never been so drained.”
It wasn`t just the team competition that was stressful. Palatine`s Tracy Anderson dramatically tied Lockport`s Sheila Szmergalski for the individual title when she bowled three consecutive strikes in the 10th frame of the last game.
Their point total of 2,418 broke the record of 2,387 set by Nikki Brandolino of Joliet West in 1988.
”I watched the last strike, not the first two,” said Szmergalski, who rushed over to congratulate Anderson with tears in her eyes. ”If she can bowl under that kind of pressure, she deserves to share it with me-or I deserve to share it with her.”
Szmergalski was in fourth place after the first two rounds, then bowled games of 230, 222 and 228 to pull into the lead.
It is only her second year of high school competition; she opted for the junior leagues when she was a freshman and a junior. During her sophomore year, she helped Lockport to a ninth-place state finish.
”I bugged her to death to get her back,” said Lockport coach Ed Matesevac. ”I knew she was the type of bowler who needed the junior leagues. It was great to have her back.”
Anderson, Palatine`s leader during the season, said she had no idea she needed three strikes to tie. When told of her finish and state record, she just repeated, ”I don`t care, I don`t care.”
What she cared about was that her team won the title.
”I told Tracy she needed to strike out for the team, and she didn`t question it,” said Petricca. ”That`s why she`s a champion.”
The rest of Palatine`s state champions (Michelle Abrahamson, Natalie Hansen, Kathy Heun and Jenni Turner) cheered as loudly when Anderson rolled her third strike as they did when they won the team title.
”I`m ecstatic about both things,” said Abrahamson, who bowled consistently over the two-day tournament and finished 10th overall at 2,240.
”We`ve waited three years to do this.`
After much confusion, third place-not second-was awarded to East Moline`s Heather Keag (2,366). She edged Streamwood`s Richell Byrdy (2,363), who led the field after the first day of competition.
West Aurora trailed Palatine by just 49 pins going into the finals and set a state tournament record for a three-game series with a 2,934 in the eighth game. It broke Fenton`s 1985 record of 2,787 and helped keep West Aurora ahead of third-place Lake Park (10,653).
West Aurora junior Marcy Deiter bowled a 259 in that series, the ninth best game in Illinois history.
”It feels great to be second, and if we lost to anyone, I`m glad it`s Palatine,” said West Aurora`s Missy Lawrence, who finished sixth last year but failed to qualify this time. ”Once I didn`t make it as an individual, it was the team from there on out.”
Larkin`s Lisa Stack made the first of what may be a series of state appearances. Just a freshman, Stack finished fifth overall at 2,295, with a high game of the day of 221 in the third round.
