Girls bowling sectionals offer varying challenges

The certainty in previous years was that the local girls bowling sectional was loaded with talent. To be one of only two teams to qualify for state was a major task.

This season, the IHSA added a regional level before the sectional. The new format changes the landscape.

Lockport, for example, won the Sandburg Regional last Saturday and is headed into Saturday’s Morgan Park Sectional at Bluebird Lanes in Chicago in good position to earn a trip to state. Lemont finished third and also advanced.

The top four finishers at each sectional will earn a berth in the state finals next weekend at Cherry Bowl in Rockford.

“I like our chances to be in the top four this weekend and get to state,” said Lockport coach Art Cwudzinski, whose team finished fourth in the state last year. “If we bowl our game, pick up our spares, we should be OK.”

The key for Lockport is balance. Seniors Ashley Hostert and Nicole Troha were in the regular lineup on last year’s state team and have been leaders this season. They shot 1,227 and 1,222, respectively, and senior Marissa Soverino won the regional with a 1,343 total for the six games.

“Over the long haul it’s been someone else stepping up and doing the job,” Cwudzinski said. “The 1,343 Soverino shot was her best ever for six games. We’re a balanced team, let’s put it that way.”

For the four Moline Sectional qualifiers from the Joliet West Regional – Minooka, Morris, West and Plainfield South – the story is different. Bowling their game and picking up their spares may or may not be enough.

Also at Moline are Bolingbrook Regional winner Waubonsie Valley, runner-up Oswego, third-place finisher Oswego East and fourth-place Plainfield North, along with LaSalle-Peru Regional champion Moline and runner-up East Moline.

Most or all of those 10 teams are capable of putting together the type of numbers needed to advance.

“We can be better,” Minooka coach Frank Yudzentis said after his Indians overtook Morris in the final frame to win the Joliet West Regional at Town & Country Lanes. “We’re going to have to be to get out of the sectional.

“The good thing is, there were things we did today that are correctable (leading to the sectional).”

Minooka senior Emily Koulis, who has been with the Indians’ state qualifying team the three previous years, said, “The sectional will be tough. We need to bowl as a team, five marks a frame. If we do that, we should pull through. We’re peaking at the right time.”

Morris senior Amber Benson, who was sixth in the regional, said, “All of us need to bowl well [in the sectional]. There will be harder teams there, although Minooka is always our toughest competition. But I’m confident.”

“It would have been nice to beat Minooka and win this (regional), but we still have a chance to get them and get to state,” said the Redskins’ Skylar Easson, fourth in the regional.

Joliet West coach Jeff Bailey, whose team shot a 5,801 total in the regional, predicted, “Our numbers will be better in the sectional. This is for all the marbles. Everything we have done to this point is to prepare for this. We’ll be on top of our game and ready to go.”

Tigers senior Julie Kowalski, the regional medalist with 1,291, finished fourth in the state as a sophomore two years ago. Taylor Bailey, the coach’s daughter, is a sophomore and was fifth in the regional.

West has not advanced to state as a team since the return to separate programs at Central and West.

“The big thing is to help get the Tigers there,” Kowalski said. “We have to bring our ‘A’ game, that’s for sure.”

Kowalski said she will discuss her state experience with her teammates, “but not until we make it there. We have to get through the sectional first.”

For the teams bound for Moline, that is easier said than done.

Up next

MOLINE SECTIONAL When, Where: Saturday at Highland Park Bowl, Moline Area Team Qualifiers: Joliet West, Minooka, Morris, Plainfield North, Plainfield South Area Individual Qualifiers: Joliet Central: Hannah Bolyn, Hayley Magruder, Addie Reyes, Alysha Guthrie; Bolingbrook: Felicia Montecinos, Megan Neverouski; Plainfield East: Chelsea Moeller, Mariah Myli MORGAN PARK SECTIONAL When, Where: Saturday at Bluebird Lanes, Chicago Area Team Qualifiers: Lockport, Lemont