Twelve turns, 12 strikes, one rendezvous with perfection.
St. Charles East senior boys bowler Cole Cartee rolled a perfect, 300, game during Saturday's Lake Park Regional at the Roselle Brunswick Zone, helping the Saints to a team title and a return trip to the IHSA state tournament.
Cartee was quick to laud his teammates' accomplishments after reaching his sport's individual pinnacle. Then again, how couldn't they be the first thing on his mind when the group engulfed Cartee immediately after his final strike?
"I could not get past them all because I was just being mobbed," Cartee said.
Cartee shared a lane with the rest of the Saints, who won the 12-team event with an overall pinfall of 6,423, 193 pins ahead of runner-up Lake Park. Cartee's 1,420 series over six games was second individually. Juniors Dean Mudlong (1,344), Andrew Culbertson (1,291) and Kyle Middendorf (1,205) were next for the Saints.
The sectional featured 137 bowlers who completed at least one game, but the house still managed to catch wind of Cartee's ongoing feat.
"I just kind of realized the further I went, the more people were starting to hush down and get quiet," said Cartee, whose previous high game in competition was a 290. "Then people started surrounding me. So it started getting nerve-racking, but I just stayed calm."
Following seasonlong protocol, the Saints still shouted, "Si," the Spanish word for "yes," after each team strike.
"We just like to maintain the atmosphere it was before so people don't get psyched out about it," Cartee said.
The Saints move on to the state tournament at St. Clair Bowl in downstate O'Fallon, which begins Friday and concludes Jan. 30. East finished fourth at state last season.
"Looking forward to having fun," Mudlong said. "We've put in the work, and we know we can do well."