History is Made in Alley: DuPont Resident Bowls Perfect Game

Not to steal the thunder from the historic inauguration but here is a story that appeared recently in the Olympian (in italics below). It seems like people need a break from harping about the mine permit until due time before the hearing examiner.

 DuPont woman reflects on rolling a 300 game at Tumwater Lanes

That is the word Karen Jost used after she became what many longtime observers believe is the first woman ever to bowl a 300 game in Thurston County Sunday night.

The best that Mike O’Malley, who has owned Westside Lanes for 19 years, could remember is a 298 bowled by Wendy Pinion.

Nobody else could remember anything better, including Sandy Clement and April Brathovd, whose husbands Creed and Dan own Tumwater Lanes and Aztec Lanes, respectively.

“Sunday night was pretty exceptional,” said Jost, who lives in DuPont and works in Tumwater as a medical programs specialist for the Department of Labor and Industries.

“It’s pretty exciting. This is my second 300 game. The other was at Paradise Lanes in Parkland in July of 2005. I took a little break there, didn’t I,” she said with a chuckle.

Jost usually bowls in Pierce County but started bowling here last year on Sundays with friends from work in the Sundowners Mixed League at Tumwater Lanes.

“One person said it’s been about 10 years since they had a 300 (by a man) in that league, so it’s been a dry spell for them.”

She considers her 300 games an aberration from the normal.

“Other than the two 300 games I’ve bowled, my highest was a 287 many years ago,” she said. “I’m a steady as you go bowler … I don’t tend to have a lot of high or bad games.”

Jost, 47, grew up in Colorado and moved to Washington in the late 1970s to attend college. A competitive swimmer during her youth, she decided she needed something to do to take the place of swimming.

“I had watched my dad bowl, and I decided ‘I’ll do that,’ ” she said. “I started bowling in 1988, and I’ve been bowling in Pierce County probably since 1991 or 1992.”

Jost likes to compete in tournaments and won the South Sound Ladies Classic at Narrows Plaza last October.

She competed in the Olympia Women’s Match Game tournament last year, losing two of three games, and was planning on doing that again this past weekend, but the tournament was postponed until March 21-22 due to a lack of entries.

“It’s a fun little tournament,” Jost said. “One of the neat things about doing this story is that this is my opportunity to plug bowling and the people at Tumwater Lanes. We need to get more people playing in advance and more sponsors for the tournament.”

Of course, if Jost had competed in a tournament over the weekend, she would have missed out on something exceptional. After all, it’s not just every day a woman gets to bowl a 300 … or a 762 series, for that matter … in Thurston County.

Congratulations to Karen for her impressive feat. This isn’t some Wii Bowling story you can tell your friends and co-workers the next morning. Frame after frame without the cheat codes or the ability to hit pause. It was real pressure, real concentration, real pins, and, of course, it took real balls.