Cocalico High School senior Samantha Santoro competed in the Denny’s All-American High School Championships recently in North Brunswick, N.J., and finished second after Natalie Cortese of Hoffman Estates, Ill., topped her 239-193 in the championship game.
Santoro matched Cortese’s seven strikes, but a pocket 4-9 split and missed 10 pin were the difference in the match.
Santoro had capped her high school bowling season March 15-16, finishing second in the Keystone State Singles Bowling Championship in Altoona.
She dropped a tight 205-197 decision to Marissa Matassa of Plum in the finals.
Cortese and Travis Moyer of Anchorage, Alaska, each received $3,000 scholarships for the victories.
Santoro got a $2,000 scholarship for finishing second.
The Denny’s All-American High School Championships showcased 32 varsity high school athletes — 16 boys and 16 girls — from 18 states.
All players competed in eight games of qualifying Saturday morning before the field was cut to the top eight boys and top eight girls, who competed in round robin match play to determine the four players for the TV finals.
The finals were aired Sunday, April 6 on ESPN.
Santoro finished 6-2 in match play and averaged more than 212 for 16 games. She earned a spot in the championship match by rolling 279 and 244 in her last two games. Cortese locked up her spot with a 256 final game.
“I struggled a couple games before that and the lanes started to change,” Santoro said in a story on the championships on bowl.com.
“I moved right and it just happened that the adjustment worked out perfectly.”
Santoro said she spent some time talking with professional bowlers at the U.S. Open on Friday to get some tips just in case she advanced to the TV finals.
“I was over watching the pros and talked to them a little bit about bowling on TV,” Santoro said in the bowl.com story.
“They said my adrenaline will be going 100 miles per hour. Parker (Bohn III) said to just stay calm, but I think it’s going to be hard.”
To wrap up Sunday’s finals, Moyer and Cortese teamed up with a couple of PBA stars in a doubles showdown. Cortese and Kelly Kulick defeated Moyer and Tony Reyes 215-194.
The 32 high school participants were selected based on their bowling skills as well as personal and academic achievements.
