Collinsville girls bowling has tough stretch of tourneys over break
By Mark Jurgena
The Holidays can be a busy and even a crazy time and that certainly was the case for the Collinsville girls bowling team over their holiday break.
CHS was originally scheduled to participate in the Alton Holiday Tournament on Dec. 22, but that was canceled due to the icy and windy conditions that came through the Metro East on that day.
It was rescheduled one week later, the day after the Mid-State Tournament in Peoria which meant some early mornings and a late night with some difficult road conditions.
“It was pretty crazy,” said CHS coach Sean Hay. “Getting up and leaving the lot at 5:30 a.m. (for Peoria) and then coming back that night and then coming back for a tournament (that next day), I know some of the kids had that drag too. I almost made that Alton tournament a JV only, I debated that for a little bit. But I asked them and they were like, ‘we want to bowl!’ So it was all good. I am happy they did.”
Mid-State Tournament
The Mid-State Tournament at Landmark Lanes in Peoria was hosted by Oswego (East) High School on Dec. 28.
Collinsville took sixth place at the 20-team event by firing a 5496. They were the second-highest Metro East team finisher 109 pins behind Belleville East. Lockport won the tourney with a pinfall total of 6096.
Sophie Tottleben finished in ninth place with a 1215 total for the day. She fired a 649 in the morning and a 566 in the afternoon and finished 109 pins behind the tourney champion Madison Davenport of Rockton (Hononegah).
Her average for the day was 202.5 with a high game of 243.
Caici Buckman took 18th place for the Kahoks. She had an average of 193.6 on the day with a high game of 242.
She had a 587 series in the morning and a series of 575 in the afternoon.
Laila Jaoko had 1009 pinfall total which was good for 48th place while Livia Montgomery finished in 50th place shooting a 986 despite missing one game.
Alton Tourney
After their long journey to Peoria, they got back up to make a shorter trip at least to Alton.
“We knew we were going to have back-to-back days and mentally you’ve got to get ready for that,” said Hay. “Generally, during the season I don’t do that to give the kids a break but this worked out pretty well I think.”
The girls came out and had an impressive performance.
“At the end of the day they were in the hunt for first and we were in first for three of the six games,” said Hay. “Right at the end we had a stumble game and Mascoutah overtook us. We both bowled basically the same game at the end and they stayed ahead of us.”
Jaoko fired the high series for the day to finish in second place individually only 11 pins behind the individual winner while Tottleben finished two pins behind Jaoko for fourth place.
“I like where our girls are,” said Hay. “Coming into this year I knew we had good talent, but we had some experience coming back but we had some inexperience as mainstay starters. Overall I think the girls are doing really well.”
Upcoming Schedule
The girls faced Belleville East on Tuesday and Belleville West on Wednesday but results were unavailable at press time.
They return to the lanes Monday at home to face Edwardsville and Wednesday they travel to St. Clair Bowl in Fairview Heights to take on O’Fallon.
