Girls bowling: Meadows makes most of last-regular season meet
The Rolling Meadows girls bowling team will head into Saturday's Mid-Suburban League tournament with a ton of confidence.
The Mustangs put forth their best effort of the season in a victory over Wheeling on Wednesday night at Arlington Lanes.
Brooke Edwards and Jenna Sassan each rolled a 597 series as Meadows collected 2,690 pins (including a 983 team game 1) to win 7-2 in the last regular-season league meet.
"They've been working very hard on their technique," said Mustangs coach Karen Ellingsworth. "I've been telling them for the last couple of weeks that we were going to have our day, and they came in the right frame of mind and everything just clicked."
Meadows triumphed despite a sterling performance from Karsyn Burgess of the Wildcats, who fired a 258 game en route to a big 622 series.
Edwards marked a 234 game for Meadows. Shay Thompson had a 203 game while Sassan rolled a 225 and a 223.
"We did phenomenal today," said Sassan, a senior who also competes on Color Guard for the Mustangs. "It's the best we've ever done. Something did just click for all of us.
"We we wanted to give it our best tonight after Monday's meet, which was a little rough. We wanted to come in and go out strong. We were all there for each other like we have been all season."
Sassan, who has been on varsity since her sophomore season, has plans to enroll at Illinois State or Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the fall to continue her bowling career.
She added that it's a goal of her team to make it through at least to sectionals this year and "continue playing the way we did today.
"I just have to be consistent with keeping the ball near my ankle," the senior added. "I tend to keep the ball out when I'm bowling and keeping the ball near my ankle (during the release) gives me more control. That's what I did today and I bowled way better than I have in a long time."
Hoffman Estates kept its first-place position in the conference with a win over Hersey.
Kelly Paradowski paced the Hawks with a 607 series (games of 204, 202 and 201) while Caroline Stiefbold led the Huskies with a 533 series.
Alexis Orwat fired a 221 game for Hoffman and teammate Allura Magsino had a 211.
Schaumburg remained in second place, right on the heels of the Hawks.
Haylie Frick contributed with a 605 series for the Saxons (216 game) while Kylie Frick shot a 253 (Game 1) in a victory over Fremd.
Conant won over Palatine as Jemma Skweres had a 225 game.
Barrington defeated Elk Grove behind the play of Jenica Baron (213 game) and Grace Hauk (555 series).
Buffalo Grove defeated Prospect on the effort of Riley Donahue (games of 219 and 209) and sophomore Rebecca Howard, who carded a 205 game.
Howard has been leading the Bison all season with solid performances. She came into play on Wednesday seventh in individual average at 186.
The sophomore said she was inspired to compete for the Bison after seeing the success of former BG standout Jessica Soskich, who was state champion the previous two seasons.
Howard also gave props to her current coaches.
"I have to credit coach Trip (BG head coach Jean Tripam) and coach V (assistant Chris VanGrondelle). They're very supportive of me and it's OK with them if I have a bad day or things aren't going right. Really, they've taught me how to bowl.
"Bowling is an individual sport but it's also been amazing to be a part of this team. We've really grown and it's great to see how far we've come this year."
Howard added that the best is still yet to come for BG.
"I'm hoping we can get a top five (placement) in the MSL," she said. "And if we push ourselves we can go even higher."