Schones places in top 10 again

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. — In the 10th frame of her high school career, Lake City senior Amber Schones made the most of her opportunity Friday.

Schones bowled four games in the cognitive impairments division of the state adapted bowling tournament and exceeded her average each time. In the girls’ singles competition she placed 10th overall. It was her third top-10 finish as an individual in six trips to state.

“Just knowing that there’s no more after this I had to end on a strong note,” Schones said.

Lake City coach Kim Bobb said Schones had been talking about the state tournament since the first day of practice this spring.

In spite of the preparation and previous trips to state, Schones said she was nervous while bowling the in the singles’ competition at the Brunswick Zone.

“When I let go of the ball, my hand’s like this,” said Schones, holding up a trembling right hand.

It was hard to tell based on the results. Schones bowled a 160 in her first game. That would prove to be her best score of the day. She followed that up with a 136 in Game 2. When her handicap of 65 was added to each score she finished with a grand total of 426.

Schones knew that a year ago a 426 was good for eighth place, but when the 2011 top-10 finishers were first announced their scores were in the high 600s and low 700s.

After a delay, it was revealed that the totals were tabulated wrong. Handicaps had been added twice.

Schones, who possessed the highest average and lowest handicap of any bowler in the field, ascended to 10th and earned a medal when the results were corrected. She was caught off guard by the announcement. She had already taken off her bowling shoes when the medals were presented the second time.

“I had to run up there barefoot and everyone was looking at me like, ‘She’s up there barefoot,’” Schones said. “Well I wasn’t expecting (it). It feels good. I do feel like I could have done better, but there was a lot of competition out there so I’m lucky I got what I did.”

Schones tied for fourth as a seventh grader and took sixth as a sophomore. However, she’s meant more to the program than top honors at state.

“She’s a good person to have around,” junior Megan Keller said. “She just has this aura about her that she doesn’t give up no matter if she’s struggling or not. She’s willing to ask for help. She listens really good. I call her a friend.”

Tigers junior Lija Phernetton placed seventh in the CI Division boys singles tournament with a total of 428.

He entered the tournament averaging a 74, but he bowled a 113 in the second game.

“He knew he did well too because he got done and he said, ‘Do you think I’ll place?” Lake City coach Kim Bobb said. “... It was fun for him to be thinking about that. It was good too because he didn’t know if he was going to come out for bowling. He thought about it last year and he didn’t.”

Keller and Riley Huppert also had noteworthy games. Keller bowled a season-best 130 in Game 1 of the singles competition and Huppert, who averages an 83, recorded a 107 in Game 2 of the team competition.

One of the few things that wasn’t a highlight was the team score of 1,510. That equated to 22nd place. Bobb said Lake City had bowled in the high 1,600s in previous competitions. Alexandria won with 1,729.

“That was head-banging,” Bobb said. “That was probably one of our worst scores of the year.”

Tags: lake city, prep, tigers