Arlington Heights bowlers win Baker Blast state tournament
"I cannot believe it; I am so in shock right now," Dawn Makuch said after hearing that she, Sue Husar and Chris Patterson-Duebner had won the 2015 Miller Lite/ISBPA (Illinois State Bowling Proprietors Association) Beer Frame Baker Blast State Finals and $5,000 on Jan. 10, at Classic Bowl, in Morton Grove.
The three women, teammates in the Arlington Heights Women Keglers' league at Beverly Lanes in Arlington Heights, entered the Blast during in-center qualifying last fall and advanced to the State Finals as Beverly Lanes 2, with a cumulative differential of 3 pins from their target score of 151.
Team target scores are determined by adding the league average of each team member on the day the team qualifies, then dividing that sum by the number of bowlers on the team. Baker Blast bowlers try to hit their target score in a "Baker game" - a format in which each member of a team bowls one frame at a time until a 10-frame game is completed. Every pin less or more than the target score is added to the "cumulative difference" from the team's target mark. The team with the lowest cumulative difference in the State Finals is the winner.
"We were the alternate team last year, but Beverly Lanes co-owner Lyle Zikes told us before we came, 'You are going all the way this year,'" Patterson-Duebner said.
Beverly Lanes 2 posted games of 150-144-153-148-153 in the five-game Baker finals for a cumulative difference of 15 pins. Its nearest competitor, a trio from Stardust Bowl 2 in Addison with a target score of 204, rolled games of 204-204-191-201-205, for a cumulative difference of 17 pins.
Had Stardust Bowl 2 continued to post scores of 204 in games 3-5, it - or any other team that hit its target score in all five games - would have won not only the State Finals but also a $50,000 bonus. Twenty-nine 3-, 4- and 5-person teams from across Illinois competed for the title.
Makuch admitted that Beverly Lanes 2 "didn't practice at all" to try to figure out scoring strategies before coming to Classic Bowl.
"But I'll bet everyone else did," Patterson-Duebner said with a laugh. "Really, for us, it's not about bowling your best, but just bowling and working together as a team."
"Until they started announcing the [cumulative difference] numbers [for all the teams], we really didn't know where we finished," Husar said.
Patterson-Duebner said she kept her friends and league mates apprised of the team's performance during the day with Facebook posts.
"I've got nine 'likes' so far for posting that we won," she said.
As for the $5,000 first prize the teammates will split, Makuch and Patterson-Duebner planned to put their shares toward vacation expenses.
Husar, who is active in her church ministry, was going to take a trip abroad with the money - but not exactly a vacation.
"We [she and her husband] are going to Africa for two weeks in July to build a church, so the money will be used for that trip," Husar said.
Talk about manna from heaven.
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