Menster rolls a 300 -- again

     Is the second one easier? Cody Menster thinks so.

     Five years after bowling his first 300 game, Menster, now 21, did it again. This one came during Suburban League action Nov. 29.

     “I just felt mentally it was a lot easier, just because I’ve been there once,” Menster said. “So you kind of know what it takes to do it again.”

     The perfect game was the second in Menster’s 694 series that night. A switch in bowling balls wound up being key to his success.

     “I actually didn’t throw this ball until the end of the first game,” Menster said, holding the ball that produced the 300. “I was kind of lost. I wasn’t very consistent. I made the move and pulled this ball back out of the bag. (After that) I felt really comfortable with the shot I was throwing.”

     The 2016 Monticello High School graduate said there was just one small glitch during the game.

     “There was one time in the seventh frame where I got, I wouldn’t want to say lucky, but it finally carried,” Menster said. “So I pretty much told myself, ‘You’re this far, there’s no sense in messing it up now.’ ”

     Staying consistent, he said, was critical.

     “You’ve got to make sure you’re lining up the same and you’re throwing it the same,” he said. “Even then it doesn’t always guarantee a strike.”

     He said getting to the 12^th ball wasn’t as difficult as it had been five years earlier.

     “I just thought to myself, ‘Just don’t do anything dumb, out of the ordinary, you’ve been doing the same thing for the last 11 frames, so just keep it simple,’ ” Menster said.

     Menster bowls regularly in Cascade, on a team that includes his father and two cousins. There, he carries a 202 average. He subs in Monticello and in Cedar Rapids when needed.

     Menster earned a marketing degree from Kirkwood Community College, and currently works at Welter Storage in Monticello.

     “With family and stuff, I’d like to stay around town, for now,” he said.