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Knight’s 811 breaks Pike Street mark

Ex-Patriot nearly set city record

Photo Provided Parkersburg South graduate Josie Knight rolled an 811 series last month to break the women’s house record at Pike Street Lanes during the Thursday night Mixed Benchmark Realty League. Knight had games of 279, 257 and 275, which broke the former record of 804 set back in May by Amber Hill.

PARKERSBURG — As simple as the concept of rolling a bowling ball down the lane and hitting pins is, the sport often times proves to be quite difficult.

However, a week ago Thursday at Pike Street Lanes was just one of those nights where everything came together for Parkersburg South graduate Josie Knight, who came tantalizingly close to eclipsing Karen Keener Shoemaker’s all-time city record of an 812 series.

As it turned out, Knight came through with a career-best 811 series during the Mixed Benchmark Realty League — rolling games of 279, 257 and 275 — to break the Pike Street Lanes record of 804, which was previously set back in May during the West Virginia women’s state tournament by Amber Hill.

Knight, who will be enrolled in the nursing program at West Virginia University at Parkersburg come January, said she was just looking “for 30 clean frames.”

“I was just looking for my 30 clean frames,” admitted the sophomore Knight, whose all-time previous best series was a 739. “I had it one other time, but it wasn’t in league where it actually counted. I was just wanting to get it where it could count and be sanctioned.”

A former high school singles state champion for the Patriots and a 20-and-under Mountain State youth open bowling champ, Knight definitely got her “30 clean frames” in style considering she finished with 30 strikes.

“I had a 9-spare in the third frame and then struck out the rest of the way,” Knight said of her game one 279, which came close to her career-best 289.

After rolling the 257, Knight said she had an 8-spare in the first frame of game three and “then had nine strikes in a row. I threw a strike on the first ball in the 10th and then a six-three.

“If I had the nine count on the 11th ball in the 10th frame, the second ball, I’d have beaten the city record. I actually thought I wasn’t going to get an 800, but then everybody started cheering for me. I was just looking for the 30 clean. That’s what I was going for.”

Already a CNA who works for Genesis HealthCare, Knight had options to go away for college and bowl. However, her desire is to become a registered nurse and she decided to stay close to home and pursue her career path.

Considering she only bowls once a week in the Thursday mixed league, that makes Knight’s accomplishment even more impressive.

“I was really blessed with that one because I don’t know how I did it,” Knight said of her 811. “I was rolling the ball pretty good that night. I felt really surprised I was able to do it.

“I normally average somewhere around a 210 most of the time, but I do obviously have some bad games and I have some really good games. It just depends on how my night is going.”

Not long after her 811, Knight said she got a congratulatory text from Hill.

“I coached with Amber on the Parkersburg South bowling team last year,” Knight added. “I was bowling beside of her when Amber shot her 804 series. I never thought, you know, that I would get up there. I was just lucky.”

Knight used a Storm Phaze II for her strike ball and then a Columbia 300 white dot to pick up her spares.

“I missed the pocket two times the whole evening,” admitted Knight, who normally bowls with her mother Kim in the league, but she was out due to injury although she was on hand to watch. “I might have had one (strike ball) that was like a little light, but all the pins fell down and it carried real well.

“Other than that, they were pretty solid strikes. The past couple of weeks, I haven’t felt I was coming out of the ball like I normally do. I didn’t do anything different, but it just felt good coming off my hand.”

Obviously, Knight would love to have another evening where she’s on and has a chance to break the all-time city record of 812, but for the time being she’s content with how things are going in her life.

“For right now, my goal is to stay here and maybe work at Marietta Memorial or something like that,” she said of the future.

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