Britny Kabic was known for being a bowling rockstar — a title she was both embarrassed and proud of.

Kabic’s parents even have a shrine dedicated to all of her bowling achievements in their house, said Lani Kineret, one of Kabic’s closest friends who got to see the shrine first-hand when she visited Kabic’s house for the first time.

Kabic, a sophomore advertising major at Syracuse University, died inside Walnut Hall on Friday night. The incident is not being treated as a criminal matter, according to a statement from Department of Public Safety Chief Bobby Maldonado.

Kineret, a sophomore policy studies and women and gender studies dual major, first met Kabic during their freshman year at SU when they attended the Home to the Dome event as part of Orientation Weekend. Kineret’s roommate hadn’t shown up on the first day and since Kineret is from California, she didn’t know anyone there.

Kabic approached Kineret at the event, determined to be her friend, and after that, the two were “attached at the hip” — so much so that they were often mistaken as roommates.

The adventures between Kabic and Kineret started when they went to their first college party together. From then on, they got into a lot of antics on floor 20 of Lawrinson Hall, Kineret said.

During the spring semester of their freshman year, Kabic and Kineret both decided to rush sororities, and after they got bids — Kabic to Delta Delta Delta and Kineret to Gamma Phi Beta — they bonded during the sorority pledging period.

“She got me into watching American Horror Story every Wednesday,” Kineret said. “We couldn’t go out, but we’d sit in bed and watch it after going to the gym.”

At the end of every day, Kineret said they would talk and vent about their days and anything stressful going on in their lives.

“I knew her before joining Greek life, and she was the best person to talk to because she was quiet and she really listened,” Kineret said.

When Kineret was returning home to California after the end of her freshman year, she flew out of Philadelphia — which is close to where Kabic was from — so that they could go to dinner together and explore the city.

“We did a lot in one year,” Kineret said. “It’s hard to sum up.”

Kineret said she remembered one time last year when she used a face wash that burned her skin. The reaction to the face wash was so bad that Kineret said she didn’t want to leave her dorm room to go to the dining hall.

As a result, Kabic attempted to make a meal out of the snacks she had in her room. One of the snacks, however, gave Kineret food poisoning.

“Britny said, ‘That’s what I get for being nice!’” Kineret recalled.

She added that it obviously wasn’t Kabic’s fault she got food poisoning, but Kabic took the blame for it anyway because that’s the kind of person she was.

“She never had anything bad to say about anyone,” Kineret said. “She was probably one of the smartest, most put-together people I knew. It’s hard to think about — putting her whole life into words.”

Beth Egan, one of Kabic’s professors who teaches advertising in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, described Kabic as very sweet and quiet, but always engaged in class.

Egan remembered Kabic was very athletic and always came to class with a bottle of Muscle Milk, looking like she was ready for a run.

For an assignment in one of her classes, Egan said students were told to write about the last time they were engaged in a creative task. Kabic wrote about trying to buy Christmas presents for her parents.

“I really wanted it to be something special and different than ever before,” Kabic wrote for the assignment.

Kabic wrote about walking around the mall window-shopping for good gift ideas. When that ultimately failed, Kabic wrote that she resorted to Googling “unique Christmas presents.”

When that didn’t work either, Kabic wrote that she thought about what her parents liked and eventually decided on buying her parents spots in a wine tasting class.

“I was very happy with my approach to this task and my parents really enjoyed it too,” Kabic wrote.

Published on February 14, 2016 at 11:08 pm

Contact Sara: smswann@syr.edu | @saramswann