When Jeremy Sonnenfeld of the University of Nebraska bowled his first strike, he was thinking only of getting a good start to the tournament.
Then he threw another and another until the sophomore had 36 strikes in a row - in what could become the first sanctioned 900 series in bowling history.Sonnenfeld, an All-America bowler last year as a freshman, said he previously had bowled seven perfect games, but none of them consecutively.
Sunday's masterpiece came on the Sun Valley Lanes in Lincoln.
"Each one is just as precious as the one before that," he said in a telephone interview. "But to have three in a row and to set a world record, well, I just don't even know what to do."
An American Bowling Congress official said there have been at least four 900 series reported, but none were approved officially for various reasons, including unsanctioned tournaments and lane conditions failing to meet standards. The official said there have been three 899 series, two during the past year, and an 898 two months ago.
Twice before, bowlers have had three consecutive 300 games in sanctioned play, according to Mark Miller of Bowling Inc. in Milwaukee.
Troy Ockerman did it in a tournament at Owosso, Mich., in December 1993 but that didn't count as a 900 series because the games were bowled in two sets of competition. Norm Duke also did it during a Professional Bowlers Association event at North Brunswick, N.J., in April 1996 but those games came in the middle of an eight-game block and therefore did not meet series criteria, Miller said today.
"If this is approved, it would be the first 900," said Miller, a spokesman for ABC and other sanctioned bowling organizations. "But it's not official until we've checked everything out. We're working right now to see how fast we could put it all together. Everything has to be right. It has to meet all the rules."
Miller said ABC probably would have a final ruling within days.
John Losito, who runs Sun Valley Lanes, said the tournament was sanctioned by the Young American Bowling Alliance, an arm of the ABC.
"The lanes were inspected on Jan. 9, and that's good for 30 days," Losito said.
Sonnenfeld said he wasn't nervous during the game, even on that last frame of the last set.