Sometimes the stars just align.

With her fifth-place finish in Monday’s Class 3A Region 2 state-qualifying meet, Marshalltown senior Camillya Thomas became just the fifth Bobcat girls bowler to advance to state.

Thomas rolled a three-game series of 513 to punch her ticket to state with a top-eight individual finish on her home lanes at Wayward Social on Monday, marking the Bobcats’ first qualifier since 2023.

Standing in front of the crowd to receive her state-qualifying medal and ticket, Thomas finally smiled.

“It means a lot to me because it’s something that I’ve worked up to do since my ninth-grade year,” said Thomas, an East Marshall High School student. “And so now that I’m a senior and I finally made it, it means a lot to me.

“Today was big hopes and dreams for me, definitely, because I wanted to make it to state the last two years and it just didn’t work out.”

Thomas tallied her career-high game of 210 in the middle of an otherwise below-average day for her in individual play. She rolled 148-210-155–513 to claim Marshalltown’s first state bowling berth since Madison Pickett in 2023 and Sydney Dannen in 2022. Karlie Potter represented the ‘Cats at state in 2018, while Meagan Taylor was the first in 2007.

“It’s awesome,” said MHS head coach Dustin Peterson. “When you think about this bowling program, the girls’ team has never been [to state], and we’ve had some individuals go but few and far between. So it’s really nice to have one back in there.

“Her first game was not one of her best games, and her last game was probably not one of her favorite games, but she put it together in that [second game].”

Thomas tallied a turkey — three-straight strikes — to start the second game as the Bobcats moved from the public lanes to the private area alongside Urbandale. The quaint, quieter surroundings came through for “Cam” as she surged into the top-eight standings with the best game of her prep career.

“That turkey helped me out a lot because my first game, I kinda crashed, but I was glad that in that second game I came back way more confident,” Thomas said.

Thomas had six strikes in the second game, earned four spares and left only one frame open. She moved into fifth place and stayed there despite a steady but unexciting third game that featured only one strike, six spares and three open frames. A split in the ninth frame let some doubt linger in, but Thomas persevered with the help of her teammates.

“Literally, shout-out to my team because I was so down on myself, but their energy brought me back and I wouldn’t have been able to deal without them or my coach,” said Thomas. “State has always been a goal of mine, but having fun with my team and learning is also a big goal.

“I feel like I definitely had it in me, but I just needed that talk with my team.”

The Bobcats finished fourth out of eight teams, missing state qualification by two places in the standings but also 495 pins. Cedar Rapids Kennedy captured the regional crown with a 15-game Bakers total of 2,604, followed by Waterloo West at 2,562. Urbandale (2,195), Marshalltown (2,067) and Ames (2,039) led the chase pack, trailed by Des Moines East (1,918), Des Moines North (1,781) and Des Moines Roosevelt (1,735).

Kennedy and Waterloo West claimed six of the eight individual state berths out of the regional as well, led by Kennedy’s Elaina Chesmore. The Cougar senior had two of the six 200-pin games during individual play to lead all players with a 586 series.

Marshalltown entered the day with a 115.87 average in Baker games, but rolled 15 games at an average of 137.8 to impress themselves a bit with fourth place. The Bobcats had seven Baker games between 150-160 and eventually edged out an Ames team that beat them during the regular season.

“Today’s a lot of fun, and then at the same time it brings everything that we’ve been working for together,” said Peterson. “It was an awesome day. I was pleaseantly surprised to be in fourth place, and honestly we left a lot of pins out there on stuff that we normally would be picking up.

“I thought we bowled really well. I would have liked to see us maybe in the third spot, but at the same time, we got ahead of a couple teams who beat us earlier in the year so that’s always good to see.”

Seniors Bailey Damman, Ariana Villagomez, Thomas and newcomer Silvana Steenvoorden combined with juniors Aubrey Webber and Ray Massa to rotate through 15 rounds of Baker play, putting together some strong runs to help offset some stretches of struggling.

To see the team put forth a strong showing was really satisfying for Peterson.

“I didn’t really know what we had when the season started,” he said. “I knew we had Cam. And I told her for the last two years that she’s been my best bowler on the team, but she just hadn’t done it. This year she really started putting that together.

“Three of these girls played JV (junior varsity) last year and Silvana joined the team about three weeks ago. Bailey and Aubrey have been unbelievable this year with the leaps and bounds they made with scores, attitude and leadership. Even Ray has come out of her shell a little bit and is starting to be more of a vocal person on our team, and that’s really great to see. Ariana had a great day — there was a stretch in Bakers where (MHS boys head coach) Nate (Clark) turned back and goes ‘that’s five (strikes) in a row that she’s thrown.’

“All in all, pretty good day. Great season. Now we’ve just got to finish it.”

Villagomez ended up as the Bobcats’ third-leading scorer during individual play, putting up a 154-127-152–433. Webber ended up in 15th place, but only 22 pins out of joining the tie for eighth place with her 161-162-155–478.

The tie for eighth place had to be settled by a bowl-off, where Kennedy’s Kiera Foye claimed the final ticket to state by beating Waterloo West’s Macy Smedley after both rolled a 500 series. Smedley entered as the leading scorer in 3A with a 207.17 game average.

Damman, a BCLUW student, rolled 145-140-133–418, followed by Massa (92-128-97–317) and Steenvoorden (100-94-75–269), who is a foreign exchange student from the Netherlands.

Thomas will take to the 3A individual state tournament on Thursday, Feb. 12, at Cadillac XBC in Waterloo with a 9 a.m. start time.

“I know for a fact that when she’s happy, when she’s smiling, she’s bowling better,” Peterson said. “She’s her own worst critic, so we’ve just got to keep her spirits up. And I think some of the other senior girls really tried to help build her up and keep her on point, so it’s a big team effort.

“I think those girls are super happy to have one of theirs going to state to represent us.”

Class 3A Region 2 State-Qualifying Meet

Team Standings — 1. Cedar Rapids Kennedy 2,604, 2. Waterloo West 2,562, 3. Urbandale 2,195, 4. Marshalltown 2,067, 5. Ames 2,039, 6. Des Moines East 1,918, 7. Des Moines North 1,781, 8. Des Moines Roosevelt 1,735.

Individual Qualifiers — 1. Elaina Chesmore, CRK, 586; 2. Lexi Peverill, WW, 541; 3. Megan Sommerfelt, WW, 522; 4. Daisy Slater, CRK, 517; 5. Camillya Thomas, MHS, 513; 6. Kayleigh Shofe, URB, 512; 7. Natalie Brown, WW, 511; 8. Kiera Foye, CRK, 500.

INDIVIDUAL SCORING

CR KENNEDY — Chesmore 586, Slater 517, Foye 500, Lily Bader 497, Emma Deeds 495, Kaiya Gralund 490.

WATERLOO WEST — Peverill 541, Sommerfelt 522, Brown 511, Macy Smedley 500, Maya Knight 480, Addison Simon 451.

URBANDALE — Shofe 512, Abby Pawlawski 484, Olivia Froehle 460, Emmerson Young 422, Amara Brown 404, Elaina Klass 404.

MARSHALLTOWN — Thomas 513, Aubrey Webber 478, Ariana Villagomez 433, Bailey Damman 418, Ray Massa 317, Silvana Steenvoorden 269.

AMES — Willow Guernsey 464, Charlotte Woodley 436, Journey Wolfe 406, Avery Voss 402, Hailey Craig 389, Kylee DeCamp 356.

DM EAST — Cheyenne Anderson 484, Addison Stancil 456, Aubrie Dickey 370, Alivia Sheridan 358, December Snow 327, Delilah Mancia 270.

DM NORTH — Jozey Bensley 380, Ari Chester 369, Kyleah Vivanh 365, Raquel Serna-Reaza 309, Aubrey Smith 285, Charlotte Hogan 274.

DM ROOSEVELT — Talia Bruning 421, Quinn Harbison 384, Blaine Bruning 376, Gracie West 368, Ava Cerne 343, Nora Wright 334.