Schaumburg finishes 7th at IHSA state bowling tournament
ROCKFORD - Schaumburg senior Sara Kuczmarski may have had the best take on the Saxons' performance at Saturday's girls state bowling championship.
"I thought we bowled our best," said Kuczmarski. "We did as well as we could, but other teams just bowled a little better."
Schaumburg, third in 2007 and second last year and one of the pretournament favorites to take home the ultimate prize, finished seventh at Cherry Bowl Lanes.
Lockport was the clear-cut winner. The Porters won the title with a total pinfall of 12,267, outdistancing runner-up Rockford Guilford by 356 pins.
Junior Nicole Sanhamel of Vernon Hills took home the individual trophy with a 12-game average of 226.9.
Prospect senior Hannah Wrenn ended her career with a 15th-place individual finish, besting her mark of two years ago, when she was 18th as a sophomore.
Wrenn bowled five consecutive games over 200 Saturday in the tourney's second day to end up with 2,500 total pins.
"Hannah may not have take home a medal but that doesn't take anything away from her accomplishments," said Prospect coach Greg Troyer. "She's been a special bowler and a team leader for us for four years, and she's only going to improve once she gets to college. She was relaxed and focused and ready to bowl her best today.
"It's going to be tough to replace her, but we'll try."
Schaumburg started the day eighth and moved up to sixth place after 55 total games - but with the teams in front of the Saxons bowling so well it was difficult to rally.
Sophomore Jodi Gawlik led the Saxons with 2,561 total pins, good for 11th place overall.
Jodi's sister Marilyn, a senior and last year's state champion, was right behind in 12th place with 2,535.
"We bowled well at times, and at times we bowled like we didn't have a clue," said Saxons coach Mark Kelly. "When you do that at this level you're going to find yourself behind by 500 pins real quick. We just had too many missed spares.
"Who would have thought before this tourney started that I would have had put two girls from JV in the lineup because one girl was sick and another was struggling."
Saxons senior Kathryn Schild missed Saturday's morning session because of illness, but she returned in the afternoon to fire a three-game series of 653 including a high game of 234.
Marilyn Gawlik rolled a 280 in her first game Saturday.
"I'm going to miss everything about this and all my teammates," Gawlik said. "But I'll be going on to bowl at college (McKendree University in Lebanon, Ill.), so it's not like I'm going to stop bowling."
"I hope to come back here next year and watch my teammates do this again," said Kucmarski, who is a senior.
Collinsville was third in the tourney, with Plainfield South fourth. Leyden was led to a 12th-place finish by senior Kaity White (2,400 total pinfall).