Well she did not get her name on the leader board as she was struggling on Saturday. We did not think she would even qualify for semis but she did. 2nd to last! She was behind the leader by a good 60 - 70 pins. She had three games to make up the difference and qualify in the top 5 for finals. My friend, Linda showed up right before semi finals to watch. I think Essica was showing off. She bowled a 222, 199 and 202. Those scores jumped her from 13th to 1st. Top 5 bowl off in a step ladder format. So 5th bowls 4th, winner bowls 3rd and so on. Essica being the top seed only had to bowl one game. She capitalized on a mistake that the other bowler made and captured the win. It was very exciting and fun to share with Linda. She walked out with $200 added to her scholarship fund.
We stayed the night at my sister in laws house, left at 8 the next morning to head about 45 min south to the next tournament. Essica's goal for the day was to just lead a round. She's never done that. She always comes from behind so she just wanted to start off strong and bowl well early. It was a very tough sport shot today and all bowlers were struggling. She bowled with the same kids she bowled with Saturday. Ryan was the boy she beat for 1st and he was on her lanes as well. He started off very strong again. Essica also started off well and stayed in the top 5 but couldn't jump any higher. After the qualifying rounds, we knew she made the cut as she was still in the pluses. All she had to do was bowl about 170 to make the cut. Her first game was a 170. 2nd game a 129! She was freaking out. That dropped her into the minus and placed her 6th! She had to bowl about a 200 to make up for that. Luckily all the other top kids went minus that round too but it wasn't a fun place to be at that moment. I told her to get aggressive and fight for it. She likes to come from behind and this is her chance to do that. She went up with a new attitude then and slammed out a 223! We thought that would carry her to the 1st place slot again but Ryan managed to hang on to it this time. So Essica was 2nd and had to wait it out 2 rounds before she could bowl. She started off her first game really bad and was getting upset. I told her the same thing, be aggressive! It's never too late, so don't give up. She went up and knocked back 4 strikes and the other girl started struggling and Essica took the game with 15 pins to spare. :) The title match was between her and Ryan again. They stayed even through to the 6th frame when Essica left an open frame. Ryan struck and then he opened too. He ended up open in the 10th too and left the door open for Essica. She only needed to mark and get 8 but she pulled her arm and left a really ugly, hard to get mess. She freaked out and pulled her arm again and missed. So she walked out with 2nd and couldn't be much happier had she won. Total for Sunday was $115. So $315 for the weekend and two more plaques added to her trophy wall. Not a bad weekend. She also moved up the points ladder and should be in 2nd right behind Ryan who also won two titles this season and finished 2nd once also.
Essica has 3 high school matches this week. What with the snow and then the flooding we missed both high school matches and gymnastics meets. So we have a few to make up before the season ends at the end of the month. I believe we have this weekend off though. Whew!
In other bowling news, I bowled my Friday night league before we left for the weekend and I shot a 245, 202, 180. I broke the high series for women on my league so now I have both the high scratch game of 267 (I shot that two weeks ago) and the high series of 627. :)
Bubba has a make up gymnastics meet today and then another meet on Wed. She's working hard to get a vault. I believe the vault of the day will be a yurchenko with a 1/2 twist, no flip. We shall see. :)
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