Swanson’s streak keeps Vernon Hills on a roll
Eric Swanson is having a ball with his new ball.
He’s practiced with his holiday gift plenty over the last few weeks, and the results just keep getting better.
The Vernon Hills sophomore nearly hit the 800 mark for the second time in four days on Wednesday afternoon as he threw games of 256, 269 and 254 for a 779 series at Brunswick Hawthorn in Vernon Hills.
Along the way, Vernon Hills knocked down a season-best 3,251 and rolled past Stevenson (3,081) to win the Northern Illinois Boys Bowling Conference for the second straight year.
Swanson posted a school-record 816 series Saturday in an invitational hosted by Lake Zurich at Brunswick Deer Park. Swanson’s games there were 268, 269 and 279.
Vernon Hills earned a second-place finish at LZ’s invite, the sixth time over eight tournaments this season that the team has finished in the top three.
“Everything has come together,” said Swanson, who has the second best average in the conference at 218. “I’ve got a new ball. I have been able to get strikes with it lately.
“This has been the best team by far. The entire team has a lot of fun, and it’s fun to be around. We all pick each other up and help each other.”
Steven Linda also hit a high mark for Cougars on Tuesday with a 255 game, along with games of 223 and 200 for a 678 series. Nick Garpow threw 624, Jeremy Steininger 613 and Jimmy Tyrcha 557.
“We’ve been getting there all along,” Vernon Hills coach Ron Long said. “We’ve been in a lot of tournaments this year and have a lot of experience. This team is probably one of the best in finishing games. They’re very competitive and they feed off each others’ work. It might be one of our best teams ever.”
The Cougars defeated the Patriots in the opening game 1,086 to 1,032. Then Vernon Hills rolled a season-best game of 1,171 while Stevenson went 996. But Stevenson responded to take the third game 1,053-994.
Joey Scimeca threw a high game of 274 and hit a career-best 707 series for the Patriots. Max Kozak shot a 691, Chris Kosky 662, Paul Ritt 585 and John Schmidt 536.
“We’ve had a good season,” said Stevenson coach Barry Lapping, whose team finished runner-up to Vernon Hills in the league. “Vernon Hills has a very tough team and I expect them to do a lot at state. We’ll see if we can pull things together with a number of veteran seniors.”
Both Vernon Hills and Stevenson will take part in the Lake Zurich sectional at Brunswick Deer Park Lanes on Saturday, starting at 9 a.m.