Feb. 22--Nobody's perfect, of course. Unless you're a bowler. That gives you a chance to be perfect for an hour or so.
Between Friday's preliminary round and Saturday's final, a state-record four bowlers rolled perfect games during the state tournament at Cherry Bowl in Rockford.
Lemont senior Kyra Udziela rolled the first 300 game of her career during Friday's fourth game and never surrendered the individual lead, though Oswego junior Brittany Breedlove briefly tied her after Saturday's fourth game.
Machesney Park Harlem's Mylee McCracken and Belvidere North's Emily Ashens joined the fun Friday and finished the meet in the top 20.
Less likely was Lockport freshman Bailey Delrose's perfect game. Delrose averaged 199 on Friday and wasn't in the tournament's top 60 high scorers at day's end, but she used her wide, left-handed stroke to craft 12 consecutive strikes to open play Saturday.
"The righty side is 10 times worse because everybody's playing the same line, and it dries out 10 times quicker," Delrose said. "It's just really an advantage to be a lefty."
Three boys bowlers rolled 300s in the Saturday-morning session at the 2009 state tournament. No previous state final, boys or girls, had featured four over two days.
Waubonsie's still here
Waubonsie Valley could not complete the three-peat, but the Warriors have plenty of reason to believe the top trophy is within reach next year.
Waubonsie Valley entered the tournament as a dark horse, having posted the sixth-best sectional score devoid of last year's talented senior class. Juniors Veronica Dreyfus and Violet Kirk are the only bowlers on the roster who saw action at the 2014 state meet.
But the Warriors, who have no seniors, finished Friday's preliminary round in second place and 139 pins behind first-place Collinsville.
Their title hopes faded early Saturday when spares came more frequently than strikes, and by the end of the morning Waubonsie Valley had fallen to third place, well behind Lockport and Collinsville.
Still, the Warriors' third-place finish gives them four state trophies in as many years. They finished third in 2012.
"It was pretty clear the whole team was graduating, so you're starting all over again," Warriors coach Marty Miller said. "A testament to these girls is that they put their balls down for the month of February, and they went back to work in March. By the time the season started, I knew that we could make a statement."
Machesney Park Harlem won three titles from 2000-02 for the only three-peat in tournament history.
City limits
The Public League has overwhelming success in many sports. Girls bowling is not one of them.
A Public League bowler has been a medalist only seven times since 1980, and no one has done it since Ag. Science's Kia Giddings placed ninth in 2007. Medalists are top-12 individual finishers at the state tournament.
Lindblom junior Mia Pope came relatively close this year, finishing 19th in the state with a 215.3 average. No Public League bowler has placed better since Giddings' performance.
Pope placed 36th as a freshman.
"This whole school year has been a challenge, but we really wanted to make a difference, "Pope said. "Morgan Park, they used to have a really good bowling team, and now bowling's starting to die out. We're really trying to work hard to make sure we can come back and do good again."
