Gallery • 5 Photos

By Taylor Moss

Leaning forward, junior Devin Kuhlman watches the ball roll down the lane. The bowling team claimed first in every category at the St. James meet Thursday, Jan 23.

Both the boys and girls JV and Varsity bowling teams took first place at their meet hosted by St. James at Park Lanes, Thursday, Jan 23. The varsity girls scored 2087 while the boys scored 2215; the top varsity scorers for the meet were senior Bri Laluk with a score of 583 and junior Jackson Penny with a score of 613. In her first game, senior Rylee McElroy scored a 230, setting her personal record of all time and bowling the highest game out of all the girls at the meet. 

Due to McElroy’s superstitions, the score came to her as a huge shock.

“I don’t look at my scores when I’m bowling so I didn’t find out I had beat my record until the end of that game. I tend to have a guess of my score in my head while I’m bowling, but my guess was way lower than my actual score,” McElroy said. “I was beyond shocked to see that my score was a 230, considering my record before that was only 199.”

To start off her second game, senior Rylee McElroy bowls 4 strikes in a row. #woah pic.twitter.com/Hc8a3aiU0B

— Mill Valley News (@millvalleynews) January 23, 2020

Although this meet was a huge milestone in McElroy’s bowling career, to her, it felt like any other meet. 

“I don’t feel that I prepared any differently for this meet. I actually bowled poorly at practice yesterday, so I didn’t have super high hopes for the meet today. Other than being able to drive to our home meets, nothing was noticeably different,” McElroy said. “I tend to be superstitious, so I usually try to keep things the same when it comes to uniform and not looking at my score.”

For her senior season, McElroy is pleased with how the team has bonded so far. 

“This season I have been much more relaxed. I have grown closer to my teammates so I really look forward to bowling, which makes it much easier to improve,” McElroy said. “I’m really happy with how the season has gone so far. I would say as a team, we are more consistent this year than we have been in past years. We have also spent more time together so we become closer each year.”