Congratulations to Melissa Kammerer of Staten Island, New York for rolling the highest series in the 103-year history of the United States Bowling Congress Women’s Championships during her singles event Thursday with an 818 series.
She put together games of 280, 238 and 300 at the South Point Bowling Plaza to set the record and take the lead in Diamond Singles at the 2023 event.
The previous record of 816 was shared by Michelle Feldman of Auburn, New York (2009 – singles), and Jodi Woessner of Oregon, Ohio (2010 – doubles).
Kammerer recorded the 12th 800 series and 40th 300 at the USBC Women’s Championships, and she is just the fourth bowler in tournament history to have both an 800 series and 300 game on the championship lanes.
On top of that, she was making her debut this week at the Women’s Championships.
Starting her set with 19 strikes on her first 23 deliveries through two games, the 34-year-old right-hander needed 228 in Game 3 to take the outright lead in Diamond Singles from Julie Vickers of Pittsburg, Kansas, who had held the top spot with 745.
The strikes kept on coming in Game 3 for Kammerer, as she became the second bowler at the 2023 event to achieve perfection. Alice Efendic of Thornton, Colorado, had rolled the first 300 at the 2023 event May 7 during doubles competition.
“It is just an amazing accomplishment,” said Kammerer, who bowled collegiately at Wichita State University and currently is the head coach of the women’s bowling program at Long Island University. “I was nervous the whole time.”
“It has been my dream to win one of these tournaments,” said Kammerer, who also competes on the Professional Women’s Bowling Association Tour. “Hopefully I can when it’s all said and done.”
Kammerer, who averages in the 2-teens in league play, used the 900 Global Reality on the left lane, the Storm IQ Tour on the right lane and the Storm IQ Ruby for the perfect game. This was her 6th career ace and 2nd career 800+ series.
"I’ll be honest I was super impressed with myself that I stop 280 with two different balls and two different lines and only the left lane would strike with a light hit."
"I was pretty happy was staying on top of the moves and by the end of game 2 it was fading so I tried the iq Ruby moved a little bit more right and it was perfect."
"I had no idea I shot a record until I was done. I had zero idea what first place was at the time. I just went in there to have a good time with my girls."
Even her coach from Wichita State, Gordon Vadakin, texted her afterwards, as well as her other coach Mark Lewis.
"It meant the world to me."
