ETHS Girls Send Full Team To Bowling Sectional

One step closer.

That was the leap forward taken Saturday by Evanston’s girls bowling team at the Hoffman Estates regional tournament.

The Wildkits scored a runnerup finish with a pinfall of 4,961 at Poplar Creek Bowl and advanced to the sectional level for just the third time as an entire team in program history, matching the 2019 and 2023 ETHS squads.

Now there’s one step left to take, a trip to the Illinois High School Association state finals.

Head coach Ray Austin believes the best is yet to come after senior Lily Pavelec, junior Neva Whitcomb and sophomore Jordin Gibson all earned top 10 individual finishes at the regional tourney.

“It was a long day for us, but it was a good day,” said Austin. “We knew with the oil pattern at that house that it was going to be another tough thing to deal with, but I’m proud of the way we kept going and we were able to grind it out.

“With a veteran team like this one, there’s no whining and crying about the oil patterns. It’s a tremendous advantage to know that we can go into anyone’s house with the mindset that we’re going to figure it out within a few frames. No one on any team had any big games Saturday, so we just had to grind it out and we did.”

The Wildkits have worked toward the goal of reaching the state tournament ever since a busy summer and fall of league competition in which the commitment of more than just a few --- including the financial commitment to the expense of the sport --- became obvious to Austin.

Now they’re closer to being fully rewarded for that effort.

“Last year we were such a surprise, we came out of nowhere,” said the coach. “This really could be our first State team now. I explained to them that if they put in the work, it would show. They wanted it and it showed. Now here we are. We’ve got that shot.”

At the regional, the Kits did actually get outscored for the first time all year by an opponent. They had previously won all of their dual competitions and all three tournaments they played in, but Saturday Hersey chalked up a score of 5,016 to Evanston’s 4,961. Prospect (4,929) and Schaumburg (4,653) also advanced full teams to the sectional set for Saturday at Arlington Heights Lanes.

Pavelec (5th at 1,081), Whitcomb (9th at 1,020) and Gibson (10th at 1,011) did most of the damage for ETHS. Senior Kaleigh Burgess was next best at 926 for her six game set.

Evanston did outscore Hersey in a Game 5 head-to-head luck-of-the draw team matchup Saturday, by a margin of 831 to 773, so that made the “loss” not exactly tough for the Wildkits to swallow.

“I thought our girls were really chill about it. It didn’t bother them at all, because they’re going to the sectional, and they took that as a big win,” Austin added.

“I think we’ll need to be a little better at the sectional --- maybe a 5,100 as a team --- to make it out.”