Junior becomes the first Viking to win individual state bowling title
By Rich Fisher, Sports Editor
When Kayleigh Kimberlin was a little girl, her parents would take her to Carolier Lanes while they enjoyed a night of bowling.
A lot of kids in that situation tend to run amok through the building as they play video games, raid the snack bar or just hang with other kids stuck in the same situation.
Not Kayleigh.
”I’d just sit there and watch them,” Kimberlin said. “I was around 5 or 6, and I just wanted to bowl and be like them, because they were good.”
And now, so is she.
Kimberlin’s parents must have pretty strong genes, because Kayleigh evidently inherited that talent.
The sweet-rolling junior proved it last Wednesday, when she became the first female bowler in the history of South Brunswick High School to win an individual state championship. And Kimberlin did it in the same house where she watched mom and dad.
”When I walked into the bowling alley, I at least wanted to make sure I finished in the Top 10,” Kimberlin said a few days later. “I never thought I would come in first. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be state champion and be able to make it all the way through.”
Ahh, but sometimes reality is wilder than dreams.
Kimberlin put her name in the SBHS history book by defeating Toms River East’s Jen Brzozowski, 192-180, in the finals of the stepladder competition.
And like all the rest of her step battles, it wasn’t easy.
Brzozowski, who was playing her lone stepladder game of the day after finishing the qualifying round with the most total pins, struck out in the 10th frame to open a 180-165 lead.
”She struck four times in a row, so that really put some pressure on me to mark,” said Kimberlin, who needed to get at least a spare, and then pick up six more pins on the third frame. “But I like pressure like that, knowing I can’t afford to get any opens.”
Those steady nerves were aided by a strong support system.
”I had Ms. B (head coach Tara Burniston) on my side,” Kimberlin said. “She just made sure I didn’t stress out over it. She told me to just bowl and do what I could do.”
Kimberlin also leaned on teammate Jackie Sutton, who made the qualifying round but finished tied for 11th with 1,161 pins (the top five advanced to stepladder play).
”I pretend I’m bowling against Jackie, because she’s a really good bowler and I try to keep pace with her,” Kimberlin said. “I kept going up to her and she’d tell me I needed to bowl better. Every time she told me that, I would strike.
”So before the 10th frame, I went up to her again and said, ‘Tell me I need to bowl better.’ So she did.”
The results were sparkling, as Kimberlin rolled two straight strikes to win it, then knocked down seven more to climb over 190.
”Getting that first strike helped me because that took the pressure off of having to get the spare,” Kimberlin said. “I was in a much better spot once I struck. And as soon as I let it go, I knew it was a strike.
”It gave me all the confidence in the world, going into the second ball in that frame. I knew where to throw it, how to throw it.”
Once Kimberlin clinched, a wild celebration broke out.
”I was speechless,” she said. “I couldn’t say anything. It was crazy. There were camera people around, my parents were crying and everyone was very excited.”
The triumph was the culmination of a monthlong rise by Kimberlin, who has been averaging a 192 over the past month (fitting, considering her final stepladder match) after hovering at 179 during the regular season.
”That was news to me, I did not know that,” she said. “I thought I was only averaging a 180.”
Thus, the question begged to be asked. What happened?
”I’ve been throwing the ball different and listening to my coach a lot more,” Kimberlin said. “I’ve been staying under the ball nicely and I threw it right. I didn’t wimp it, like coach calls it, and come in on the side of the ball. I’ve been releasing it differently, and putting more strength under the ball. And I’m playing the lanes and adjusting to them better.
”The other big thing was moving me to first in the lineup. I don’t know why, but that mental part of it really helped me a lot. I just bowl really good there.”
Kimberlin began her late-season surge by finishing fourth in the Prodigal Foundation Masters (to benefit kids with cancer) three weeks prior to the state finals. She then rolled a 606 to tie for eighth in the state sectionals.
At the start of Wednesday’s state round, Kimberlin was 30th overall out of 46 qualifiers. Each bowler rolled three games and the top 18 scorers advanced. She was in fourth place after that round, and the survivors rolled three more games.
The Monmouth Junction resident finished with 1,281 total pins to finish third, and rolled her high game (270) and high series (662) in the process. That meant she would have to win three stepladder matches to claim the title.
Kimberlin defeated fifth-place Amanda DeMauro of Mansfield Township, 235-225, and topped second-place Sami Morlack of Burlington Township, 175-165. With such close scores, Kayleigh was well prepared for the meat-grinder pressure she would face in the finals.
”I told everybody it was my time,” she said. “I was OK coming in whatever place I came in. I was just happy to be there. But I knew I was going to bowl well and the lanes were great that day.”
Despite all her confidence, Kimberlin said it was still like a dream the next day.
”I still couldn’t believe it,” she said. “I was going through it in my head all night, trying to figure out how I won and how it happened. I was still in shock.”
In a final bit of irony, Kimberlin is known on the Vikings as “The Cheerleader.”
But in the end, they were all cheering for her.

