ETHS Girls Capture CSL Bowling Title

The only other time the Evanston girls bowlers challenged for the Central Suburban League championship was back in 2020, when the Wildkits ruled the regular season but were forced to share the title with New Trier after falling short in a bid to win the conference postseason tournament.

Now the queen stands alone.

The Kit girls captured the outright conference title for the first time in program history Saturday at Classic Bowl in Morton Grove. With three individuals --- champion J.B. Burgess, Neva Whitcomb and Lily Pavelec --- placing in the top five, ETHS ruled the tournament with a team score of 4,943 to 4,724 for runnerup New Trier.

That effort came on the heels of a perfect season --- so far --- against both dual meet and tournament competition this winter. The Kits conclude the regular season with a dual against Regina Dominican on Tuesday.

Burgess led a balanced attack Saturday with a pinfall of 1,047 for six games with third place finisher Whitcomb and fifth place finisher Pavelec close behind at 1,029 and 1,015 respectively.

Sophomore Jordin Gibson chipped in with a 955 and juniors Nina Fischer, E.J. Bock and Bridget Bueltmann also contributed for the new champs.

“No kissing your sister this year. It’s just us,” said veteran ETHS head coach Ray Austin, referring to the tie with New Trier a couple of years ago. “This is so huge for me. It’s Year No. 15 for me and there wasn’t even a conference when we started. Now, we’re on top.

“The girls worked on their games all summer and we really talked about making winning the conference a priority. It’s a big accomplishment and I’m so happy and so proud of them. These are girls who never bowled before they came into high school, and they put the time in and they got it done.”

The Wildkits captured their first tournament title this season at the Bloomington Invitational --- “that was the first chip” according to Austin --- and also won their own Martin Luther King Invitational.

Saturday, the ETHS girls rose to the occasion despite lane conditions that kept every team score down. The Kits came out of the gate with a team score of 857 --- “that’s about average for us this year” said Austin --- and piled up a 921 in Game 3 to pull away from the field.

Now the Wildkits will shift their focus to postseason play. They’ll be part of a 13-team tournament field that will compete Saturday at the Hoffman Estates Regional at Poplar Creek Bowl.

The top four scoring teams, and the top 10 individuals who aren’t members of those teams, will advance to the Fremd Sectional along with qualifiers from the Libertyville and Antioch regionals.

“It won’t be a cakewalk for us. It will be tough,” Austin acknowledged. “But I feel real good about where we are as a team and about our chances on Saturday.”