He said he wasn’t really thinking about carrying a perfect game until the Marshalltown senior stepped up for his 12th roll with 290 pins.

“Then I got past the 11th shot and was like, ‘Well, either it’s gonna happen or it doesn’t,'” Kramer said. “I threw it and I’m like, ‘Hey, I might do it again.'”

Kramer had a perfect 300 — his third-ever perfect game, he said after the meet. He rolled a 242 in his second game to put together a 542 in the individual series, adding to his top-of-the-state game average of 242.4. But his heroics weren’t enough for the Bobcats to pull off an upset of Ottumwa bowling in their meet. The Bobcat boys failed to hit 3,000 pins for the second-straight meet, falling 3,450-2,982.

Coach DJ Wilder said the low scoring was the most concerning part of Thursday’s loss.

T-R PHOTO BY NOAH ROHLFING - Dylan Cooper celebrates after clearing nine pins during Thursday’s meet against Ottumwa at Wayward Social.

“Don’t think we transitioned well when the lanes broke down on us,” Wilder said. “We got things to learn there, things to clean up. Tomorrow’s practice is going to be all about spares.”

The boys had only three bowlers reach 400 in individual scores — with Demitri Ferneau scoring 444 and Hunter Dannen reaching 403. Ferneau was the only other bowler on Marshalltown to reach 200 in each round. It was the second-lowest team total for the Bobcats this winter, trailing only their 2,926 from a loss to Waukee a week earlier.

The Bobcat girls varsity team didn’t fare better, falling 2,966-2,439. It’s their second loss in three matches and drops both team’s records down to 7-2 and 3-2 in the CIML. Hannah Slifer led the girls with a score of 393.

The Bobcats will host district qualifying this year at Wayward, and Wilder said for Marshalltown to be ready the team needed to get back to what made it 7-0 to start the year.

“All in all, I’m not concerned about the deficit, I knew this was a good team coming in,” Wilder said. “They do all the little things right. We just gotta get there.”

The Bobcat boys have three seniors on varsity, but Wilder said it was an inexperienced group coming into the year.

With district meets coming up Feb. 18 and the CIML Iowa Conference meet taking place Feb. 13, Wilder is hoping Kramer’s consistency can rub off on a young group that’s full of promise.

“It’s very important,” Wilder said. “I need someone to pick that up and see it and learn from it, and I think he’s done a good job of passing that along as we get to the end of the season.”

IN OTHER NEWS

Prior to Thursday’s meet, Bobcat senior Ashly Wiegand had a commitment ceremony and signed a letter of intent to bowl for Iowa Central Community College in 2020-21. Wiegand bowled a 288 Thursday after the ceremony.