The Saint Patrick bowling team competed in the Illinois High School Association Boy’s Bowling State Finals in O’Fallon last weekend. This marks the second straight year that Saint Patrick has qualified for the IHSA State Finals, finishing 21st last year. The Shamrocks earned their berth this year by winning the Chicago (Lane) Sectional Championship. Saint Patrick placed 24th this year.

Pete Penkala and Dan Kasperek led the Shamrocks. Penkala podted the Shamrocks’ highest score for the six game series with 1,169, with a high game of 215. Kasperek started slowly, but seemed to find his rhythm with a 232 and a 212 in his third and fourth games., Unfortunately, Kasperek was unable to break 170 in his final two games, finishing with a total of 1,132 pins. Bob Torkelson (997) and Chris Iverson (931) both came up short of 1,000 pins, while Mike Ryan and Jim Ulczak split time as the fifth bowler for the Shamrocks.

The Shamrocks success on the lanes is particularly remarkable considering the fact that Saint Patrick didn’t even have a bowling team as recently as three years ago.