Girls bowling: No state bids for NWI girls

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Updated: March 13, 2012 10:41AM

FORT WAYNE — There’s a first time for everything, but this was one occurrence no Northwest Indiana high school bowling fan thought could happen. In the first 12 years of Indiana high school bowling, the region has sent at least one girls team to the state finals every season with four state titles.

That streak came to an end on Saturday in Fort Wayne as Portage (fifth), Boone Grove (eighth), Hebron (ninth) and Lake Central (10th) all finished outside the top four advancing spots.

Portage was the most distraught after missing state by just seven pins.

“We had too many open frames on easy one-pin spares,” Portage coach Debbie Gossett said. “Each girl missed marks, so you can’t pin it on anybody specific. Hopefully we’ll learn from this.”

Boone Grove was in a decent position at multiple times. The Wolves rolled the high regular game in the girls division (891) to start, but fell back to fifth after a 737 game. After two Baker games Boone was third before falling.

“We started out on fire,” Boone coach Mike Kraushaar said. “It was a great season, but we just ran out of gas.”

After not making it out of sectional last year, Lake Central made a big step on its way back with a semistate appearance. But the Indians’ youth caught up to them on Saturday.

In the second team game, the Indians missed 11 one-pin spares, and in the Baker games they opened with a momentum-killing 114.

“It was rough,”  LC coach Stephanie Strickland said. “They’re young (only two juniors and the rest freshmen and sophomores) and it was nerves. Normally we’re much better with spare-shooting.”

LC will have a pair representing the team at state as Kelly Belzeski and Caroline Dienes advanced in the singles tourney, as well as Lake Station’s Rachel Waters and Merrillville’s Carly Larson.