Evanston Freshman Advances To State Bowling Tourney

The ability to put a sub-par performance behind you and move on is a recipe for success for any high school athlete in any sport.

The youngest member of Evanston’s boys bowling team showed just that kind of maturity to keep his season alive Saturday at the Warren Sectional tournament.

Anthony Swanson, a rising star in the sport, scored a 12th place finish overall and became the first ETHS freshman in program history to advance to the Illinois High School Association state tournament.

Swanson became just the third Evanston player ever --- joining Jake Rubin (2018) and Zev Grodzin (2020) --- to qualify for the IHSA finals. That tournament will take place Friday and Saturday at St. Clair Bowl in downstate O’Fallon.

Swanson’s success was a combination of the bitter and the sweet for the Wildkits. Coach Harold Bailey’s squad, which missed out on a team qualifying berth last year by a mere 6 pins, this time fell 75 pins short of a top 6 finish and automatic advancement. Instead, the Kits settled for 8th place with a pinfall of 5,763 in the 15-team field.

Grayslake Central (6,074), Vernon Hills (6,001), Glenbrook North (5,984), Glenbard North (5,862), McHenry (5,856) and Lake Zurich (5,847) claimed the team qualifying spots. Glenbrook North’s Josh Sachs captured the sectional title with a pinfall of 1,385.

Swanson bounced back from a 181 in Game 5 of the six-game series --- his next worst game Saturday to that point was a 213 --- with a 204 effort to secure one of the seven individual qualifying spots available to players who weren’t members of qualifying teams. His pinfall of 1,261 included games of 224, 213, 214, and 225.

He rose to the occasion on a day when his older teammates faltered in at least one game apiece, spoiling Evanston’s chances to move on as a full team.

“I was really feeling the pressure in that last game,” Swanson admitted. “I just wanted to make it down to State this year and I felt it was pretty attainable for me. I was literally shaking when I was bowling in that last game, and that’s never happened to me before.

“I had split in the 10th frame of the fifth game and I was really frustrated about that. But coming off that bad game, I was able to focus and stay in the zone. I just thought I had to bowl better.”

“Anthony know it’s about filling frames (with spares and strikes), and we didn’t do that as a team,” Bailey pointed out. “But hat’s off to him for qualifying for State as a freshman. He had to work for it because he missed some shots, too. He did a great job.

“We shot in the 800s (actually 896) in our fourth game as a team and I can’t ever remember that happening to us in my tenure. We hit a lull after the lunch break and we had to play catch-up after that. I could see they were feeling the pressure after coming so close last year. I know they had a lot of expectations of their own.”

Senior Caleb DeSavieu (245-215-211-1,186) and junior Kaelexx Oats (239-207-204-1,179) were next best scorers for Evanston. But DeSavieu registered a 147 in Game 4 and Oats was held to a 137 in Game 6 to cut into the Kits’ total.

Senior Ryan Schreiber came off the bench for a four-game total of 836, including a 246, and Graham McKee totaled a 654 for his four-game contribution. Also chipping in were Julian Walker (343 for two games) and Augie Ommen (313 for two games).

Evanston’s frustration was real considering that the Kits, and Bailey in particular, knew that a prodigy was about to arrive to bolster a team that just missed advancing last year.

Swanson certainly could be called a shooting star. Unlike in past years, when Bailey has had to seek out good athletes and try to turn them into competitive bowlers, Swanson took to the high school varsity lanes with a resume that featured a third place finish in a national tournament when he was 11 years old.

“Anthony has way more experience than most of the guys we have coming in, even though 90 percent of our players are just bowlers (and don’t play other sports),” Bailey noted. “I knew he was coming and I remember telling the other kids that they’d have to step up their games, or Anthony and I would be going to State alone this year.

“He’s got all the tools and he knows how to execute shots, too. Sometimes he’ll get a 210 and he’ll be mad about the way he bowled. He’ll be focused when he gets to State, and he won’t be there just to have a good time. His goal is to win it.”

Swanson started in the sport back in 2019 when his older brother Peter was going to join the ETHS program and needed a practice partner. “I went with him to practice, and I just fell in love with the sport,” said Anthony Swanson.

“When I was a couple of years in, I went to the big national tournament in Indianapolis and I got third in that event. I was very surprised that I made it that far, but I just kept making the cut and making the cut (to advance to the finals).”

Swanson actually appeared on television for his last two matches in that tournament, so the spotlight of the IHSA tourney won’t be as daunting as it could be for a first-time qualifier.

“My goal this year was to make it Downstate,” he said. “I have a lot of confidence because I’ve beaten a lot of the top youth bowlers in the country in different tournaments, and I knew I could do well in high school. I’m used to be up against a lot of good bowlers and I think I’m well prepared for that environment.

“My main goal is to win State.”