Condon sets bowling series record with 803

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- Chad Condon has come close to a 300 game several times, but Thursday night, Condon reached perfection when he rolled a 300 game at Concordia Lanes in the All-Star League.

Condon had a first game of 266 followed by the 300 and then ended his dream night with a 237 game for a city record 803 series.

"I was in a groove," Condon said. He averages 204 in the All-Star League. "There was no question about that. I had been toying around with my hand position a little bit and got the ball to roll into the pocket."

He said that he has had the first ten strikes in a game six times "so really the most nervous that I was, was in the ninth frame when I got back to the tenth frame with strikes, so you at least give yourself the opportunity to give the perfect game a shot. I kind of pulled the ninth strike -- I was nervous -- and I came up high, but the pins flushed out."

Condon, whose previous high league game was 289, said that he did not worry about coming in high again in the 10th frame.

"I was more calm in the 10th frame than I was in the ninth," he said. "The first strike in the 10th was perfect."

But Condon had been there before with the first 10 strikes "so I told myself what have I been thinking about for the last 10 frames, and I came back to my hand position. The 11th strike was perfect and when I got to the 12th strike I noticed that no one else on the lanes were bowling. But when I let the 12th ball go, I knew that it was there -- it was just a matter of carrying it."

Condon's 803 series tops Bill Rolloffs' 799 series for the city record.

There were also some other big scores that night. Jon Evers, who Condon was bowling against, had a 709 series and lost to Condon in head-head.

"He did beat me the last game for a point," Condon said. "He had a 245 last game and I had a 237 game."

This year, new synthetic lanes were installed, and Condon feels that the biggest adjustment was not to the lanes themselves but to the approaches.

"They are just not as slippery as the old wood approaches were. I don't know what the reasons for that is; I have changed bowling shoes and am not comfortable with them," he said. "But people still complain about the approaches even though the approaches are cleaned more than once a day."

The last perfect game at Concordia Lanes was last season by Andy Torvick.

Incidentally, when Ader Wieland won the State Men's Senior Bowling Tournament this year, Ferne Davis of New Ulm won the 70-and-over title in the Women's Senior Bowling Tournament.

LARSON BACK COACHING: Tink Larson, who coached high school baseball for 42 years at Waseca High School, is back at the helm after the Waseca School Board decided that Todd Mann, who coached baseball for the past four years at Waseca and was also the Athletic Director there, could not hold both positions

Prior to the Waseca School Board's vote to not rehire Mann as baseball coach, 36 members of the Waseca High School Baseball team signed and presented a petition to the school board asking that Mann return as baseball coach. But the school board, by a vote of 4-2, hired Larson on a one-year contract. All coaching contracts are one year

Once again, this is a case of some disgruntled parents complaining to school board members about a coach. It seems strange that the Waseca School Board allowed Larson to do both but not allow Mann to do both. Tink Larson had nothing to do with the board's decision and, in fact, backed Mann as coach. But this is once again a case of some parents complaining to school board members about a coach, just like what happened last year at Blue Earth Area.

Anyone who knows Mann as a coach and a person like I do knows that he is not only a great coach but a good man.

EAGLE BOYS LOSE CLOSE GAME: New Ulm High School boys basketball coach Pat Burmeister said that his team's 47-46 loss to Blue Earth Friday night was a hard-played game, even though they lost.

"We were down by four points going into the fourth quarter, but got a one-point lead," he said. "We were down (47-46) and called timeout to set up the last shot, and we got a shot from five feet in front of the rim with two seconds to go but did not make it."

Burmeister said that the team showed patience on offense, but could not capitalize on their chances.

"We only played seven players in the game, and they all contributed," he said. "I thought that Mike Maki and Josh Schneider played solid defense. Mikale (Gustafson) and John (Besser) scored 15 points each, and we need that balance; we do not have a person that can go out there and score 30 points in a game.

"We battled back -- we are improving as a team and are playing more consistent[ly]," he said.

GREYHOUNDS REBOUND WITH WIN: The Cathedral Greyhound boys basketball team rebounded from a 76-46 loss to Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop Tuesday with a 64-60 win over Buffalo Lake-Hector Friday night.

"We had a horrible game against GFW, but it was nice to come back as a team and play well in the win," coach Paul Hazuka said. "We went inside for our offense and did a good job on the boards. Adam Neubauer had 20 points and Michael Schwartz 11 points. They combined for 21 rebounds -- they did a nice job inside."

Hazuka said that David Rysdahl and Kyle Reinarts did a nice job defending against Jon DeRock, who is always going to get his points. DeRock totaled 22 points for the night. Hazuka said that he was a little concerned that the 30-point loss to GFW may carry over to this game.

"The kids got excited playing against DeRock -- we led the game all the way," Hazuka said. "For our kids, that confidence sure gives them more energy. We played 11 players and eight of them scored. This game may be one that points things in the right direction -- we got back on the win track."