The members of the Evanston girls bowling team made history Saturday --- maybe in a way you might not expect.
The Wildkits battled their way to an unprecedented second straight trip to the Illinois High School Association state finals and capped the celebration with, of all things, a group hug with arch-rival New Trier at the Hoffman Estates Sectional.
Alums might cringe at that thought, but spreading the joy was true to the character of Coach Ray Austin’s high energy squad after they earned an automatic state qualifying spot as a team with a third place pinfall of 4,990.
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ETHS finished behind both Hersey (5,198) and New Trier (5,134) in the 12-team field. The top four scoring teams from each sectional will move on to the state finals set for next Friday and Saturday at Cherry Bowl in Rockford.
Evanston’s senior-dominated squad has had their eyes on this prize ever since they reached the finals last year but couldn’t make it past the cut to the Saturday finals. This year? They’re aiming even higher.
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“They made up their minds the day after State last year that they had some unfinished business. So now, here we go,” explained Austin. “And after they announced the No. 4 team (Mundelein) at the sectional, and we realized we were in, the place really went up for grabs Saturday. It just feels so good all-around. These girls never stop competing.
“They talked about going back to State and they couldn’t wait for the regional and the sectional this year. They put the work in, they put the time in, and now it’s showing.”
The mutual admiration between the two North Shore neighbors isn’t seen on the football field or on the basketball court very much, but in a sport where no one gets to play any defense, the Central Suburban League rivals on the lanes have discovered they can easily revel in each other’s successes.
“I remember when we first started we bumped heads with New Trier, because they had a head start (beginning a bowling program) and we had to catch up,” recalled Austin. “Now I’ll walk into the alleys and New Trier kids call me by name. One of them even came up to me because she’d heard I was going to retire and didn’t want to see me leave.
“It’s all good between us now. They wish us good luck and we do the same with them. This is a different New Trier and Evanston. We’re even going out together for a team dinner before the tournament starts.”
At the sectional, Evanston’s veterans dealt with the changing lane conditions at Poplar Creek Bowl better than several contenders. The Kits didn’t approach their best team score of the season, but seniors Neva Whitcomb (sixth best individual score of 1,119), EJ Bock (1,023), Bridgette Bultmann (1,019) and Nina Fischer (991) never stopped grinding.
Whitcomb racked up a high game of 235 in Game 2 of the six-game set and the Wildkits also got a boost from sophomore Axel Truax. Truax came off the bench when junior Jordin Gibson (535) was struggling and registered games of 154 and 149 to help keep Evanston’s season alive.
“Every year every team has to find an identity, and this is a tournament team compared to a dual meet team,” Austin pointed out. “Part of that is because we’ve had some depth issues, but as soon as they see the bright lights of a tournament, they all want to rise together and get it done. There’s a whole different feel for them at tournaments.
“On Saturday all the teams had to fight the oil in the house (lanes). It was tough to score. You just have to adjust on the move and keep thinking we’ll hit something even when you’re not getting big scores. You can’t worry about it, you just have to keep knocking down pins.
“We had one kid in Jordin (Gibson) who was having a tough day and I could see the frustration setting in. Our assistant coaches (Arrianna Dortch and Zoey Landolt) kept saying Ax (Truax) was ready to go, and when I put her in (for the last two games) she gave us just what the team needed. She really gave us a lift.”
The Wildkits are hoping now they can lean on their state experience from a year ago to climb up in the team standings this year. The top 10 teams in Friday’s preliminaries will be back in action again for Saturday’s final test.
“We just want to do our best to qualify and live another day,” Austin added. “They want to make it to Saturday, and if we do that, that would be huge.”
