Girls bowling: Sterling finishes season strong at state

The Golden Warriors achieved their goal of placing in the top 10, as senior Amber Granzow set a school record for total pinfall at the state tournament and placed 21st individually.

“I’m tickled pink, and had a great time with these girls,” Sterling coach Dennis Black said. “I wasn’t unhappy, even with a couple of games in the 800s, because the girls didn’t let it get them down. We kept trying to make adjustments, and it was a really satisfying finish to the season … and the careers of my seniors.”

Sterling started Day 2 in 11th place, and moved up into 8th after the second game of the morning session. The Warriors rolled games of 1,000 and 941 to start the day, and still sat in ninth place after an 896 to close out a 2,837 morning session.

Adversity arose in the first game of the afternoon session, when Sterling rolled an 826 to fall back into 11th place. But Black was happy with how his team bounced back, showing a positive attitude to finish with games of 922 and 908 for a 2,656 afternoon series.

“The splits just killed us in that fourth game,” Black said. “We had 12, and the team we were bowling with had 8, and it just killed both of our games. But the girls fought through it, overcame the issue and came back strong.”

Granzow led the way all day, finishing with series of 617 and 607 and a two-day total of 2,490. That eclipsed Allyson Howard’s state-tournament school record of 2,442.

Granzow actually moved into 14th place after games of 214-203-200 in the morning, and she highlighted her final tourney with a 232 in the second afternoon game.

“Amber was without question our leader today,” Black said. “She didn’t have a bad game, and just had some bad luck a couple of times. She’d be on the verge of throwing a blowout game, but she’d see strikes turn into splits and 7-pin leaves even when she was hitting the pocket.”