Wheeling frosh Burgess busts out a 300

The already boisterous atmosphere of a Mid-Suburban League girls bowling meet got an extra shot of adrenaline Wednesday night.

Karsyn Burgess, a Wheeling freshman, fired the first 300 game the conference has seen since the 2010/11 season.

A no-doubt-about-it final strike put Burgess in the MSL record books.

"I'm really excited," said the frosh. "I'm used to stringing strikes together, and after the ninth frame I was already pretty proud of myself.

"Then came the 10th frame, and the pressure was on."

Wildcats coach Beth Anderson said right before the freshman's last shot, it was "very emotional."

"Everybody got real quiet," said Anderson, and that point even Burgess knew that she was the focal point of Arlington Lanes.

"I started crying just before I rolled my last ball," admitted Burgess.

Then the final pins fell, and it was pandemonium.

"I was crying," said Burgess, "my mom was bawling, and people were coming up to me and giving me hugs - even people I didn't know."

The excitement was felt by everyone in the alley as word of the perfect game spread from lane to lane, and Burgess' teammates said they might have been feeling as much pressure as the freshman.

"I was so nervous," said Wheeling junior Elizabeth Stavros. "My heart was racing."

• In other MSL action, Prospect defeated Buffalo Grove 7-2 on the strength of a 1,019 pinfall in game two.

The Bison had 150 pins to make up in the third game to take the match, and made a run at it behind a 230 final game by Valeria Karnevich.

But BG fell just short despite a spirited rally.

"We were fired up for this," said Karnevich, "and we almost made it.

"We've got a great team, we've just got to keep working as hard as we can and keep trying our best."

• Conant scored a victory behind the play of senior Ashley Pincenti, who said her goal this season is to see her Cougars team go to state.

"To do that," said Pincenti, who was sixth in varsity average coming into play Wednesday, "we've got to play as a team and not as individuals. That's got to be our focus.

"We've really bonded this year - everyone from varsity on down to the lower levels."

• Hersey outpointed Fremd 7-2 behind a 613 series from Emma Wrenn, but the score didn't reflect the closeness of the match as the Huskies; pinfall (2,693) was just 9 better than Fremd (2,684), who were led by a 255 game from Becca Rutkowski.

Hoffman Estates' Jordyn Fera scored a 601 series in the Hawks win over the Wildcats, but the evening belonged to Burgess, who finished with a 647 series.

The frosh's best ever game at any level prior to Tuesday was a 235, but coach Anderson says that the 300 was not a huge surprise.

"We knew we had something special when she walked in the door," Anderson said of Burgess. "She's a great kid, she comes from a bowling family and she's been taking lessons since she was 4 years old."

And Burgess added that she had a little added extra incentive when her off-season travel coach, "Coach Charles" of Mount Prospect's Brunswick Lanes, came to watch her bowl.

Said Burgess: "I didn't want to let him down."