The Saint Patrick High School bowlers saw their ride to the IHSA State Bowling Championships come to an end when they finished 21st on Friday January 27. The top 12 teams and 30 individuals advanced to Saturday’s final round. Shamrocks Matt Merkel and Chris Iverson were among the 30 individuals advancing to Saturday’s competition.

In Friday’s competition the Shamrocks came up 217 pins short of advancing. On a day that teams needed to average 1,000 pins per game to advance in the team competition the Shamrocks struggled to get all five of their bowlers going at the same time in the morning session. In each of the first three games the Shamrocks had three bowlers shoot over 200, but they couldn’t overcome one low game by a teammate. A 154 in game one, a 135 in game two, and a 137 in game three kept Saint Patrick from topping the 1,000 mark in the morning session. Matt Merkel (689), Chris Iverson (632) and Nick Leyva (611) all shot over 600 in the morning. The Shamrocks finally cracked the 1,000 mark in game four, posting a total of 1,015. In game five they had nobody lower than a 186, but nobody higher than 214, and they shot 981 as a team. In Friday’s final match the Shamrocks sagged to an 848, over 100 pins below their score in any of the first five games. Iverson was the lone Shamrock to break 600 in the afternoon, shooting 602.

Merkel who was 37th overall and Iverson who was 53rd qualified for Saturday’s round as individuals. On Friday Merkel totaled 1,262 pins for six games, an average of just over 210 per game, while Iverson was close behind with 1,234 pins and an average of nearly 206. On Saturday Merkel shot 655 in the morning, but he was unable to reach the 200 mark in the afternoon, posting a 568 that left him tied for 51st overall. Iverson struggled all day on Saturday, posting a 512 in the morning and a 534 in the afternoon, which earned him 71st place in the state.

It was a remarkable season for the Shamrock bowlers. For a school that didn’t have a bowling team as recently as two years ago to go on a run and accomplish what this group did was an adventure that none of these guys will ever forget.