On her own, Leyden's Kriston rolling right along
Ashley Kriston is getting to be a familiar face at Cherry Bowl Lanes.
The Leyden senior has competed at the state bowling tournament in Rockford each of her four prep seasons, and now she's poised for her best finish ever.
Kriston rolled games of 267 and 248 Friday enroute to a 6-game pinfall of 1365, which places her third overall entering Saturday's final session.
Her afternoon 739 was the top 3-game series of the day.
"We had a good game plan in the afternoon," said Leyden coach Chris Aylward, "and now we're going to try to replicate that game plan in the morning tomorrow.
"We tweaked a couple of things at lunch, but it certainly didn't hurt that Ashley was making some great shots."
This year's tourney has a bittersweet feeling for Kriston. The last three seasons she played on some outstanding Eagles teams that finished sixth, seventh and second in state, but this year she's competing as an individual as Leyden didn't advance as a team.
"It is different, but we're making it work," said Kriston, who added that several of her teammates made the trip to Cherry Bowl to cheer her on. "I finally was able to figure out my game plan and what line I had to play. Now going into tomorrow I've just got to keep it up and not get too excited or too upset. If I can do that I'll be fine."
Kriston trails leader Kyra Udziela of Lemont by only 32 pins while in the team race, Hoffman Estates replicated its sectional meet modus operandi to move into fifth place heading into the final round.
The Hawks were on the bubble at the Rolling Meadows sectional but threw a big final game to claim the last qualifying spot, and they did it again by rolling 1,094 in Friday's third game to run away from a pack of teams in the middle.
"We were very positive today," said Hawks junior Jordyn Fera. "We had a lot of energy and a lot of 'pick me ups' when someone got down on themselves.
"Overall, we had very solid scores and we did it at the best possible time."
The Hawks took home hardware in 2014 with a third-place finish and junior Azaria Waits says her team, which trails first-place Collinsville by 329 pins, is looking for more this year.
"That would be fantastic," said Waits of a possible top-three finish. "I was really nervous at the start today, but I was also happy about how far our team had to come. We lost a lot of great seniors (to graduation), so this was supposed to be more of an 'experience' year."
Schaumburg and Hersey fell short of placing in the top 12 and advancing to Saturday's finale, but there were some great individual performances from the Saxons and Huskies.
Schaumburg junior Sarah Schwind fired games of 247 and 234 and Huskies junior Zoe Sarbekian posted a 236, while Angela Anzalone of Conant, bowling as an individual, rolled a 242 in her fifth game of the day.
Sophomore Amanda Richae led Hoffman with a 1,290 (17th overall), while Fera (1262, 268 game) and Waits (269 game) were also outstanding for the Hawks.
Two-time defending champion Waubonsie Valley finished the day in second place in their quest for a three-peat, while competitors Mylee McCracken of Harlem and Udziela each rolled 300 games.
Freshman Allura Magsino (241, 5th game) and senior Ashley Archambault (216, 1st game) completed the Hawks' strong effort.
Both Magsino and Archambault are participating in the first-ever state meet.
"I was extremely nervous starting the first game," said Magsino, "but I knew my teammates had my back."
"We were focused today," added Archambault. "But to be able to succeed tomorrow we've got to come out even more focused."