Sports
ETHS Girls Earn Second Straight Trip To Bowling Sectional
Three Seniors Top 1,000 Pins At Regional
Evanston’s girls bowlers are still on a roll.
The Wildkits earned their second straight trip as a full team to the sectional level of the Illinois High School Association state tournament series, placing third at the Schaumburg Regional Saturday with a pinfall of 5,115.
It’s just the fourth time in program history that the ETHS girls have advanced a full team out of the regional, and Coach Ray Austin’s senior-dominated squad left no doubt with three individuals topping 1,000 pins for their respective six-game series on Saturday.
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Neva Whitcomb set the scoring pace at 1,077, just ahead of teammates Bridgette Bueltmann (1,071) and Nina Fischer (1,033). Backing them up were E.J. Bock at 992 and the only junior, Jordin Gibson, at 942. Whitcomb recorded the team’s highest individual game at 230 and Bock (216) and Fischer (212) also topped the 200 mark.
The top four teams automatically earned spots in the Hoffman Estates Sectional next Saturday. Hersey won the regional crown at 5,492, with New Trier (5,227), Evanston (5,115) and Fremd (4,908) also advancing out of the 14-team field.
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“It was a good day --- no, make that a great day --- for all of us,” said Austin. “It turned out a little better than I thought it would. Any time you get to 5,000, that’s a very good score. We’ve been short-handed at the varsity level all year long (due to injuries, illness and academic issues) and at times we’ve struggled to keep five girls on the lanes.
“But it really helps to have so many seniors who have been through so much and have so much experience. We only had one sub available today and we still got it done, in a situation where you put up the numbers or you go home.
“Our last game was a low one, a 768, and in the postseason you need games in the 800s or 900s or 1,000s. At that point we knew we were in, and I think we were just exhausted. This is a high energy team and we know the competition will be a lot stiffer at the sectional. But they’re ready, and with a little bit of luck we’ll be back at State again this year.”
