Collinsville girls’ bowlers continue to roll high games
By Mark Jurgena
The Collinsville girls’ bowling team continues to see success on the local lanes as they work their way toward the postseason.
Last week, the girls won twice and finished third at the Lancer Team Challenge in Belleville on Jan. 10.
Lancer Invite
Collinsville fell in the semifinals of the Baker-style bracket tournament to finish third, but still had a solid day on the lanes.
“We did this tournament like we’ve done other Baker tournaments this year,” said CHS coach Sean Hay. “We do what we can, we know we need to make the top eight to make the bracket finals. I’ll give some kids a chance and rotate kids around because getting in first isn’t super vital. We’re always trying to do our best but I need to give kids opportunities to know who I have at the end.
“I rotated some starters around and honestly, Kellan (Stephens) and Layla (Jaoko) made it possible because both of them bowled excellent. We were struggling in the morning beside those two.”
Stephens had the high series before the Baker tournament with a 740 while Jaoko was fifth overall.
“Stephens is brushing off the pressure of last year,” said Hay. “When you have a great freshman year, you always want to improve, but she was pressing to be great and it was holding her back. This year, she started out firing, then she had a moment of doubt, but now she has shed that and is where she should be. She’s killing it.”
Additionally, Alaina Laing had a big day at Bel-Air Bowl.
“Alaina, after a kind of a slump for a week, she busted out and got a 245 in game three (to finish the morning) and then bowled well in Baker,” Hay said. “It was nice to see her throwing with more confidence.”
CHS beat Mt. Vernon in the afternoon quarterfinals, then fell to Mascoutah in the next round by three pins. Mascoutah was in a four-way tie for fourth in the Illinois state bowling rankings this week, while Collinsville showed up in the number nine slot.
The Indians went on to win the tournament.
Collinsville bowled in the afternoon without Jaoko, who sustained an injury during the third game of the morning session.
“To get third without one of our top two in the lineup, I was pretty happy to see the younger kids step up a little bit and do pretty well (in the Baker Tournament).”
Dual matches
CHS took a pair of dual match wins over the Belleville schools last week.
They beat Belleville West at Bel Air Bowl 35-5.
Jaoko had the high series with a 611 and the high game at 246. She also had a 228. Stephens had a high game of 228.
The day before, they beat Belleville East 34-6 at Camelot.
Jaoko once again had the high game with a 279 while Stephens rolled a 278 in the same game!
“It was pretty cool to watch them shoot 279 and 278 in the same game,” began Hay. “Belleville East is one of our opponents you really have to bowl well against to beat. Those two came out firing to set the tone for a match at home. That was good.”
Stephens added 239 and 226 games to finish with a 723 series.
Jaoko added a 203 game.
CHS Schedule
Collinsville bowled in day one of the Southwestern Conference tournament on Jan. 12 at Camelot Lanes however results were unavailable at press time.
