The girls’ bowling team headed down to the Western Bowl in Indianapolis to the state competition on March 20, and placed fourth.

The road to state was long and full of excitement. They began practice in September and continued through their competition season.

It helps us to be more confident,” junior Rachel Duerr said. “Practice improves our physical and mental game during a match. It also boosts team spirit.”

The girls placed second to Munster at sectionals, which was held on Feb. 28. At regionals, March 6, the girls placed second again.

“The atmosphere was exciting,” senior Lisa Gulick said. “There was glow-in-the-dark bowling, music, yelling, crying, jumping, you just had to be there. I felt like a pro-bowler.”

“Regionals was exciting,” Gulick said. “Although we took second, the best part was seeing our guys team qualify as well.”

Semi-state was March 13, and the top four girls teams are the ones who competed at state. Our girls placed 1st.

“I would have to say my favorite part of the whole season was semi-state. We made new friends at the hotel, and we bowled awesome,” Gulick said.

None of the girls qualified individually for state.

“We were all there competing as a team,” junior Patricia Krynicki.

With a total of ten girls’ teams competing, Munster ended up taking first, John Adam was in second, and Central Grove placed third.

“I though John Adams deserved to win, but somehow Munster came out on top,” Gulick said.

Since the girls were the defending state champions, a lot was expected of them.

“There was a little bit of added pressure because we were last year’s state champs,” Krynicki said.

The team’s weaknesses was baker games, but fortunately their weak points were outnumbered by their strengths.

“We weren’t necessarily bad at it, it’s just that we worked really hard to improve them (Baker games) We had a strong all around team this year, we could all count on each other to hold each other up,” Duerr said. “When one person had an off day, we knew we could count on a teammate to help out.”

“I think one of our weaknesses is spares. We work on them a lot, and yes we have improved, but no one is perfect,” Krynicki said.

Although the team is only losing one senior (Gulick) for next year, some feel like it will affect next year’s team.

“ I think that it will affect the team’s spirit a little bit, but we still have the rest of our starters,” Krynicki said. “We will probably get a couple new people, but we won’t know until next season.”