Granzow, Wolf advance individually

The Sterling Golden Warriors girls bowling team went on an emotional roller coaster Friday during the first day of the State Meet at the Cherry Bowl in Rockford.

A poor morning session saw the Warriors sitting in 17th place, five spots shy of advancing to Saturday’s final six games. But a strong afternoon session helped Sterling battle back into 13th place with one game to roll, and the Warriors were eyeing a repeat of last year’s feat of advancing as a team to Day 2.

Sterling was 101 pins behind ninth-place Guilford, and only trailed Marengo by 36 pins for the 12th and final advancing spot. But Marengo’s 957 was 13 pins better than the Warriors’ 944, and Belleville West and Salem – which sat 10th and 11th after five games – managed to hang on and move on to Saturday.

Sterling’s 2,951 afternoon session put them in 14th, 40 pins behind 13th-place Elk Grove Village and 41 pins out of the last spot for finals.

“We buried ourselves in the morning session, and things looked pretty bleak,” Sterling coach Dennis Black said. “I told the girls that if they bowled a 3,000 series in the afternoon, we still might get in, and that fired them up. To the girls’ credit, they roared back and nearly pulled it off.

“We just missed too many spares, especially in the morning session. Four more spares somewhere throughout the day and we’re in.”

Black’s words proved prophetic; had the Warriors rolled a 3,000 series in the afternoon, they would have tied Marengo for 11th.

But Sterling will be sticking around for Saturday’s finals, because senior Heather Wolf and junior Amber Granzow advanced as two of the top 30 individual bowlers not on the 12 advancing teams. Granzow led Sterling with a six-game total of 1,264, placing her 23rd overall and making her the 10th-best individual qualifier; Wolf’s 1,211 placed her 44th overall and made her the 20th advancing individual.

“When they were going through the list of individual qualifiers, they named me and then kept going and going,” Granzow said. “I was just thinking, ‘I don’t want to be alone.’ Then they called off Heather’s name, and I was so happy that we’re both going to be in it together.”