You must be a very good bowler if the record you break is your own.

On April 2nd, Shawntel Heydt bowled an 818 three-game series, breaking her previous record of 794 set just two months earlier. Her accomplishment was the highest series ever bowled by a woman at Fritz Lanes in Lehighton.

Heydt bowled a 289 in her first game, rolling the first 10 strikes in a row. Her second shot in the 10th frame left a 10 pin standing. She began her second game with two straight strikes. Following a spare in the third frame, Heydt finished with nine strikes in a row. In the third, she started with five in a row before finishing with a 250 game.

“It certainly was exciting,” said the 50-year old resident of Palmerton and graduate of Lehighton High School, “especially to break my own record.”

Heydt began bowling when she was 13 years old after watching her mother and father bowl at Scott Lanes in Lehighton in the mid-1980s.

“I averaged somewhere between 80 and 100 per game,” she said about the start of her bowling career.

In 1987, she was a division champion in the Lehigh Valley Junior Masters Tournament in Allentown. That same year, she won the Junior Pro-Am in Slatington and was a member of the first- place team in the state tournament held in Pittsburgh. In 1992, she took first place in the state tournament in Altoona. She then moved her game around from Ashley Lanes (now Fritz lanes) to Haja Lanes in Palmerton and then back to Fritz.

Through the years, her bowling average steadily improved as she bowled in league competition. Heydt now averages between 211-214 in the Witches’ Brew woman’s league and the mixed league at Fritz.

“My son, Jeremy , when, he was nine years old, also won the Lehigh Valley Junior Master in 2017, exactly 30 years after I had won mine,” she said, proudly.

Her success on the alleys has come from what she calls, “listening and learning.”

“I never had a personal or private bowling coach,” said Heydt. “I learned to listen to good bowlers and I picked up a lot of things that I worked on to get better.”

One thing that good bowlers must do is learn how to read the lanes. Heydt brings two bowling balls to the lanes. She rolls a 16-pound Storm Crux Prime, a reactive ball that generates maximum hook to the pocket.

“I use the Crux when the lanes are more dry than oily,” she said. ‘If they are on the oily side, I’ll switch to a Hammer Widow ball.”

Bowling is not just rolling the ball down the lane from the same spot on the floor. During her high series and every night that Heydt bowls, she makes slight adjustments with her approach. “Depending upon how my ball is getting to the pocket, I’ll move my feet a board or two on the floor, but I’ll still throw over the same arrow that hopefully will get me to the strike pocket.”

Heydt will take her skills set to Altoona this year to participated in the state tournament. Four years ago, she bowled in a Pro-Am tournament in York with Hall of Famers Anthony Simonson, Parker Bohn, and Johnny Petraglia. She also met legendary bowler, Mark Roth who passed away in 2021.

Heydt’s women’s team at Fritz Lanes is called, “Practical Magic” and two months ago she nearly achieved the ultimate goal in bowling.

“I bowled a 299,” she said. “On the last ball I rolled, I was very nervous. After rolling my 12th ball, I knew it wasn’t going to be a good hit and I left the nine pin. I was disappointed, but I was excited to roll an awesome game. You don’t get many opportunities to bowl a perfect game. All I can do is to bowl my best and hope I get another chance.”

Heydt would love to see the sport of bowling become more popular. “We’re always looking for more bowlers at Fritz Lanes,” she said. “There are plenty of opportunities from junior leagues up to the seniors and the kids can bowl for trophies and scholarships, too.”

Right now, Shawntel Heydt’s name could stay at the top of the high series board for women at Fritz lanes for quite some time. Her ultimate goal is to bowl the elusive 300 game and the way she’s been going, one day, she might just hear that incredible sound of every pin in every frame crashing backward into the pit.