Sycamore senior Megan Kolberg capped her career with a ninth-place finish on Saturday at the IHSA State Championship at Cherry Bowl Lanes in Rockford.
"When you talk about nearly 1,500 girls in high school programs across the state, nine is quite an achievement," Sycamore coach Andy Hampton said. "She's one of these bowlers who is so competitive she wanted to make a run for it. She went into lunch sitting in fifth, chasing Mark (Orf of O'Fallon) who was kind of unstoppable. She gave her best effort in the afternoon but it didn't go the way we thought. But to take ninth and nearly take the team to Day 2 in state, that's something for her to hang her hat on."
DeKalb's Makala Rae finished in a tie for 41st, rolling a 2,329 over the 12 games in two days.
Orf won the tournament with a 2,743 – a 228.6 average that was almost 14 pins per game higher than runner up Haylie Flick of Schaumburg.
Kolberg finished with a 2,510, just 66 strokes behind Flick.
"No matter the situation, it's going to be her attitude that she left some meat on the bone," Hampton said. "It does not matter what she does. She just always pushes herself to be better. She doesn't celebrate the victories like I think she should and she takes the losses hard. She'll grow into that I hope. But she's consistently competitive no matter what you are talking about. You could thumb wrestle, you could play tiddlywinks, you could play bingo. She wants to beat you all the time.
Kolberg rolled a 682 series to start Saturday, and a 585 to close – her final two games were under 200. She opened the day with four straight over the 200 mark, including a day-best 242 to kick things off in the morning session.
Rae's high game on Saturday was a 223.
BOYS SWIMMING
Anderson qualifies for state in two events: Gavin Anderson qualified for state in two events as the DeKalb-Sycamore boys swim team took sixth in the St. Charles East Sectional.
Anderson won the 500-yard freestyle, finishing in 4:38.95. He also took fourth in the 200 free, finishing in 1:43.64.
The Barbs finished with 127 points, with St. Charles North winning with 271.
The 200 free relay team for the Barbs took fifth in 1:29.19, just missing a state berth by less than 2 seconds. Anthony Biundo finished the 100 backstroke in 53.90, missing a state berth by 0.88 seconds.