Comets Claire Girkin and Isabell Crawford advance to State Individual Bowling Tournament

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

WATERLOO — The few times bowling makes ESPN’s Top 10 Plays of the Day, it’s usually never a strike.

More like conversions of seemingly impossible spares.

Charles City junior Claire Girkin and sophomore Isabell Crawford had some impressive pick-ups while advancing as individuals to the State Girls Bowling Tournament.

During the individual round at Monday’s Class 1A State-Qualifier at Cadillac Lanes in Waterloo, Girkin picked up the 4-7-9-10 split — for those not familiar with split-pin-number lexicon, that combination looks like a burned-to-the-ground building with multiple chimney flues still standing.

Later, Crawford picked up a 4-10 split.

“How cool was that!” Crawford said while jumping up in the air and nearly clicking her heels like the late, great Ron Santo.

The day got cooler for Crawford when she found out her three-game series of 560 placed her fourth among the individuals — the top four individuals advance to the Girls Individual State Tournament to take place next Tuesday (Feb. 22) at Maple Lanes in Waterloo.

Girkin placed third with a 613 series behind runner-up Lydia Harris (639) of West Delaware and Kali Johnson (661) of Forest City.

Aside from picking up her split, Girkin’s feat of advancing to state is impressive in itself as she bowled most of the season left-handed while recovering from right-side shoulder surgery and didn’t move back to the right side until about a month ago.

“I’m still not 100 percent,” said Girkin, who strung five strikes to close a score of 233 in the first game of the individual round after being tapped numerous times in the earlier frames.

In the 15-game Baker Rotation round to determine what team advances to state, Charles City finished a distant second to West Delaware.

In the Class 1A qualifier, only one team advances.

“We didn’t bowl as well as we could have,” Charles City coach Doug Bohlen said.

The Comet girls peaked at the end of the regular season when they won the Conference/District Tournament ahead of recording back-to-back season best pinfalls in dual meet wins against Forest City and North Iowa.