Boys Bowling: Consistent Minooka claims crown

LOCKPORT - Consistency over the course of the day is a big factor in the sport of bowling and that is what Minooka did over the six games at the Lockport boy's bowling sectionals at Strike & Spare II on Saturday.

The Indians won their second consecutive title and fifth in school history with a six game total of 6,529 as they were the only team in the field of 16 to bowl over 1,000 every game.

With the top six teams qualifying for next weekends state finals in O'Fallon, the Indians were joined by area teams Joliet West in third (6,227), Lockport fourth (6,147), Plainfield South fifth (6,118) and Lincoln-Way West in sixth (6,107).

Lincoln-Way Central finished in seventh, just 70 pins out of the final qualifying spot.

Minooka was led by the sixth place finish of sophomore Brandon Caruso (1,330), Ryan McKay in eighth (1,326) and Ryan Franzen in tenth (1,323).

"I'm very happy, especially knowing how far this team has come since the beginning of the season," Minooka coach Derrick Rapsky said. "We are so much better now and to win this sectional, which is the toughest in the state, is a great accomplishment."

Joliet West trailed a qualifying spot for most of the day, but a big fifth game put them into sixth place and their best game of the day (1,113) vaulted the Tigers into the third position.

"This team thrives on pressure and they did it again today," Joliet West coach Reggie Lee said. "They knew what they had to do late, they stayed focused and it worked out. Now, we must finish the job we set out to do next week."

Lockport, was never below fourth place all day, but Porter coach Ron Davis was never comfortable the entire time.

"This was a grind today and right now I'm a little frazzled," Davis said. "This is by far the toughest sectional in the state and one of six teams could have won and 10 different teams could have advanced. It's always great to be going back to the state finals and never week we all start at zero."

Perhaps the surprise of the day was Plainfield South. The Cougars placed fourth in the regional last week and only had one game over 1,000 at the regionals, but had four of them on this day to punch their ticket to state.

"We knew that bowling 1,000 a game wouldn't be enough," South coach Brian Zettergren said. "We had some good practices this past week here at Strike & Spare and these kids really came through. A big key for us today was the ability to pick up our spares."

Lincoln-Way West was on the proverbial cut line all day but came through when it counted in the sixth game to get a return trip to O'Fallon.

"It's always fantastic to go to state, especially with only one returning bowler from last year," West coach Scott Jablonski said. "Cameron Jablonski will be making his fourth trip to the finals, but his team really helped him today, especially Ivan Escolar, are only other senior."

Individually, Chris Bienvenu from Plainfield Central was the champion, rolling a 1,407 and qualifying for the state finals. The other areaqualifier was Alex Nolan from Lincoln-Way Central in fourth place (1,339).

"This is insane and I have no words right now," Bienvenu said. "I didn't expect too much coming in, as I finished 20th in the conference (Southwest Prairie) just a few weeks ago. I knew what the situation was and I felt the pressure, but a 279 in the fourth game really calmed me down. I haven't even thought about next week, because I had no idea this would happen."