Boys bowling: Madura's majesty on display in regional

Trevor Madura of Lake Zurich picked a great spot to go on his roll to perfection Saturday.

After coming up with a perfect 300 game, he came up with a the next-best thing after lunch - only a 4-pin standing on his last shot for a 299 game.

Madura's 1,446 over 6 games won him the Lake Zurich regional held at Brunswick Deer Park Lanes.

Defending state champion Stevenson won the team competition with 6,394 pins. Lake Zurich was a spot back (6,306). Joining them in next Saturday's Vernon Hills sectional at Brunswick Zone Vernon Hills will be Grayslake Central (5,741) and Grant (5,717).

Madura, a sophomore, had his first 300 game after throwing 248 and 192 for a morning set of 740.

He had 12 straight strikes in the pocket.

"It was a little shocking, to be honest," said Madura, who averages around 218. "I did not expect it. It's still hard to believe it, in a way. Once I got into the ninth frame and got the first shot in the tenth, it started to hit me. I just tried to settle in a bit, and I knew I had to do it on the 12th shot. On the last shot, I hit my mark - I knew it was a good shot, and my teammates said it was the best ball I threw that game."

After a break for lunch and a brief 10-minute warmup, Madura started game four right where he'd left off. He had 11 strikes in a row, giving him a total of 23 straight, before leaving a single pin standing on his last ball.

"When it got to the last two shots, it was getting very quiet. On the last ball, it got really quiet and it seemed a bit awkward. I thought I had a good shot on it. It would've been cool to do it twice in a row."

Madura followed up with games of 182 and 225 for a 706 series.

Stevenson's Lucas Pinkus was the individual runner-up (1,383), and Zach Singer was right behind (1,351).

The Patriots were on a roll all day long, producing games of 3,301 in the morning and 3,093 in the afternoon.

"It was a great accomplishment from these guys," Stevenson coach Cody Mathias said. "We've been working on this all year, and Lake Zurich gave us a great run. Both of our teams bowled well."

Grayslake Central will be making its first sectional appearance, while Grant worked it way up in the standings after a slow start to advance.

"It feels awesome that the boys had the ability to do it over the last three games," Grayslake Central coach Bryan Dovichi said. "The guys put it all together in a few games."

The other advancing individuals were Danny Yates of Grayslake North (1,339), Jason Giza of Libertyville (1,267), Daniel Lauer of Warren (1,232), Mac Vincent (1,229) of Vernon Hills, Jacob Olive (1,227), Adam Gates (1,196) and Jacob Smith (1,206) of Johnsburg, Patrick Faje (1,161) and Nathaniel Bratzke (1,147) of Warren and Drew Mason (1,136) of Wauconda.