CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Fifteen-year-old Jarred Hunter has already accomplished what many older bowlers have been trying to do all their lives: roll a perfect game.

Hunter threw 12 consecutive strikes about a month ago at the Two Bar Bowl in Cheyenne.

"My heart was just pounding really hard when it was happening," Hunter said. "I was so nervous when it was happening. My hands were sweating like crazy.

"And I didn't think it was going to happen until I threw a strike in the ninth frame. After that moment, I knew I was going to throw a perfect game."

He said a key to the perfect game was not thinking about it while he bowled.

Hunter's grandpa, Mike Vasquez, just might be more tickled than his grandson about the feat.

"It was about two years ago that he finally started getting serious," Vasquez said of his grandson. "He started asking me, 'What makes a ball hook harder? And how do you make a ball go straighter?'

"And from that moment on, it was just like a light bulb came on and he developed his game. He just took off and started bowling really well."

And Vasquez was able to witness the perfect game.

"I was always afraid I was going to miss that first one, and he was going to do it when I wasn't there," Vasquez said. "And I thought he was going to do it this year because times in practice he bowled 11 strikes in a row and was having 279 and 280 games. So I really felt he was going to do it, and I really wanted to be here when he did it."

Hunter says he likes bowling more now after the perfect game.

"I enjoy it more now since I threw that 300. I guess I got that fire back for bowling," he said. "But I will always remember that first time being perfect."

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Information from: Wyoming Tribune Eagle - Cheyenne, http://www.wyomingnews.com