Kahok bowlers quickly gaining experience
by Mark Jurgena
It was a busy week of action for the Collinsville boys bowling team during the past week with three dates scheduled. The inexperienced Kahoks competed well against some top-flight competition.
Zach LeCuyer/Bowlify Tourney
Collinsville hosted the annual LeCuyer/Bowlify tourney on Nov. 11 at Camelot Lanes. The Kahoks landed in ninth place out of 32 teams at the event.
“That’s not where we wanted to be but we’re starting to see it trend in the right direction,” said Collinsville coach Sean Hay. “We’ve bowled a little more consistently.”
Jacob Taylor was the high finisher for the Kahoks on the day with a total of 1,272 good for 18th place out of 206 participants. Daniel Wilde was the next Kahok with a total of 1,178 for 34th place while Hayden LaDrew was right behind in 34th spot with 1,166. Jace Coats fired a 1,166 for 61st place with Shane Box coming in at 1,059 for 75th place. Jack Starr had a 780 series while Amarion Hall came in at 549.
“He’s a sophomore,” began Hay. “He’s got potential for big games but his lack of experience last year held him back a little bit. This year he started off a little slow but he came in off the bench when everyone else was struggling he did well.”
O’Fallon and Salem ran away with the top two places. The Panthers rolled an astounding total of 6,693 with the defending state champion team from Salem showing up at 6,521.
“O’Fallon did exceptionally well,” Hay said. “I think they broke the record for the high series in that tournament with 6,693. That’s a lot of pins. They did an excellent job. They almost got to 6,700 pins.”
Jared Salzman of O’Fallon won the individual championship with a total of 1,431 for the day. He beat Silas Moats of Salem by six pins.
SWC Tourney Day One and Two
After two of four rounds at the Southwestern Conference Tournament, the Kahoks sit in second place with a pair of notable games from each day.
The matches took place on Nov. 7 and 8.
“We’ve been shooting games where everyone does real well and others are just kind of there,” Hay said. “While our scores are decent because of the big game it’s kind of deceptive because there are a couple different ways to look at scores.”
On day two, at Bel-Air Bowl in Belleville, Taylor rolled a perfect 300 game to bolster the Kahoks up the leaderboard.
“It was awesome,” Hay said. “He looked really good doing it. It was nice to see because he’s started to come out of his shell. At the beginning of the year, I think he was pressing being the only person to have a lot of varsity experience last year. He worked hard over the summer to really prep to be the main guy. When things started to hiccup a little he was kind of worried but he’s kind of getting over that now and we’re seeing what Jacob Taylor can actually do.”
Three Kahoks finished day two with a series above 1200. Jace Coats had a 1253, Hayden LaDrew shot 1245 and Taylor ended up with a 1200 even.
Coats narrowly missed a 300 game finishing with a 275 on day one of the tourney at St. Clair Bowl in O’Fallon. However, he added scores of 211, 204 and 202 to his totals after that. LaDrew recorded games of 234, 227 along with a pair of 204 games. Ashton Price rolled a 234, Daniel Wilde shot a pair of 219 games and Shane Box fired a 207.
Upcoming Schedule
CHS travels to Bel Air Bowl today to square off with Belleville East before heading to Chicagoland this weekend to take part in the Plainfield North Invite at Bowlero Lanes in Romeoville.
On Monday they host Belleville West at Camelot Bowl.
