Saxons hold off surging Prospect in Palatine invite

Conference dual meets are great for reviving bowling rivalries, but invitationals are even better for separating the women from the girls.

Or something like that.

At Palatine's Invitational Saturday, Prospect had to rally to come back from a subpar morning, in which it found itself in fifth place, 236 pins behind front-runner Schaumburg.

In the afternoon the Knights showed what they're made of by bowling games of 969, 1,083 and 1,019 to finish second behind the Saxons.

Schaumburg, which never let up, won the meet with a pinfall of 5,794 while Prospect came in second with 5,751 pins. Leading the Lake County contingent was Grant, which placed ninth with 5,213 pins, 581 behind the Saxons.

Morris' Mary Bellus not only won individual honors with a pinfall of 1,314, breaking Prospect's Mandy Hazlett's record of 1,298 set in 2002, she also had the high game (267) and high series (712).

Also breaking the previous series record was Schaumburg's Sam Kelly, who placed second (1,300).

"It was hard to carry because you'd leave the seven pin or ten pin," Kelly said. "We finally noticed that if you hit the pocket, it blew the rack."

As for her team's success, Kelly said, "We were bowling really well. Then my dad (Saxons coach Mark Kelly) said Prospect had moved up to second. We had to bowl 980 in the sixth game and they had to bowl 1080 for them to win."

"Prospect had a great fifth game and a great sixth game, too," Mark Kelly said. "We had a pretty good morning and a pretty decent lead to cover us in the afternoon."

Leading Prospect was Hannah Wrenn, who finished sixth (1220).

"I feel great," said Prospect coach Greg Troyer, whose afternoon score (3,071) was second to the school record (3,114), also set in 2002. "We did fantastic. We came back really well in the afternoon. Everyone was jelling and was strong in the afternoon.

"I know this morning we didn't face a shot. This was only our second invitational. Now Hannah's going to do well because of her experience."

Rolling Meadows placed seventh as a team but Jillian Kola placed fourth (1237).

"The conditions were awesome," Kola said. "They were just the way we wanted them. I stayed in the same place almost the whole tournament. That's very unusual, especially in a six game meet."

"She's always bowled well," said Mustangs' coach Karen Ellingsworth. "She was seventh in the conference last year, averaging 197. She's a good bowler and works very hard at it."