Call it the perfect ending to the highest-scoring IHSA girls state bowling tournament ever.
Lockport’s Stephanie Fedder had just sent 10 pins flying to seal a state team-record 11,414 score and the school’s first state bowling title Saturday, when all eyes at the jam-packed Cherry Bowl Lanes turned a few lanes away.
There, staring straight ahead and with a ball held to her hip, stood Crete-Monee’s Becky Christensen.
Christensen had reeled off nine straight strikes in her 12th and final game and was about to shoot for the perfect game.
“We had just won the title. But we all just stopped and watched,” Lockport’s Lisa Hemmerich said.
Christensen swung into her motion like a metronome, the ball swept down the lane and all 10 pins fell.
As the crowd buzzed and just as quickly grew silent, Christensen dried her hands and reached for her next ball.
This one spun off ever so slightly, however, leaving the Nos. 6 and 7 pins standing. She spared out and finished with a 288-the second-highest game score in tournament history and a final-round individual game record.
Now, at last, the Porters were free to celebrate, right?
Wrong.
At the other end of the alley, Warren’s Arlene Hidalgo was putting the final touches on a 12th-game 272 that would carry her to the individual championship.
Hidalgo had slumped to a 165 in her 11th game to fall eight pins behind Lake Park’s Kristen Glin and just three ahead of Rock Island’s Jody Askam.
But Hidalgo closed out her masterpiece with a spare and a state-record total 2,591 pinfall count to edge Askam (2,562) and Glin (2,520) and to set off a teary celebration among the Warren bowlers.
Although Lockport had to wait for its own celebration back in Lane 18, it was no doubt well worth it.
The Porters racked up their 11,414 count over two days and 12 games to hold off surging Lake Park (11,302) and Crete-Monee (10,988).
The title was the first for Lockport coach Ed Matesevac in seven trips to the state finals. Before this year, Lockport had managed two fourth-place finishes, a fifth and a seventh.
“The monkey’s gone,” Matesevac said.
The Porters finished just strong enough Saturday, scoring 905-964-915 in their final three games for a 2,784 series.
The total proved just enough to hold off Lake Park, which rolled 914-1,029-997 for a state final-round record 2,940 team series.
The 1,029 in Lake Park’s 11th game were also a team title-round record for one game, and the Lancers’ 11,302 overall team score surpassed the state tournament record of 11,072, set by Palatine in 1992.
“We thought we had a chance going into the last three games, but Lockport had just too big a lead,” Lake Park coach Larry Dunn said.
Lockport entered Saturday’s play trailing Crete-Monee by just two pins for the overall team lead. The Porters’ championship five of Fedder, Hemmerich, Sarah Gugerty, Jodi Jungles and Kelly Schultz quickly seized the lead by rolling 903-1,030-1,037 for a state-final team series record 29,070 and a 268-pin lead heading into the last series.
