Buffalo Grove's Kalaytowicz completes amazing comeback
A year ago, Christina Kalaytowicz was sitting in a wheelchair watching her Buffalo Grove girls bowling teammates compete.
Kalaytowicz was sidelined after being diagnosed with a form of cancer called Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
On Saturday, in her senior season, Kalaytowicz was inserted into the Bison lineup for the final three games of the Vernon Hills sectional at Brunswick Hawthorn.
Kalaytowicz rolled a high game of 214 and a 535 series, helping the Bison advance to the IHSA girls state tournament that starts Friday at Cherry Bowl in Rockford.
Antioch won the sectional and a state berth with a pinfall of 5,571.
Buffalo Grove (5,179) finished second, only 9 pins ahead of host Vernon Hills (5,170) to earn the other team berth.
“I was just out there helping the team,” said Kalaytowicz, who has competed in a few meets over the last month. “I'm just glad to be back after missing a whole year. I feel I have come a long way from last year.
“It's such a team sport and everyone is in it together. Team helps out a lot, they give me faith in what I can do. We just cheer each other on.”
Kara Zukoski, who missed last season after undergoing back surgery. contributed a 1,024. Other Bison scorers included Mariah McVay (1,191), Shana Rarick (1,075), Anna Haller (887) and Vicki Theodosopoulos (467 for three games).
“I was telling the girls that every pin counts,” said Bison coach Jean Tripan. “It comes down to pin count and we just got lucky today. But the kids earned it.”
Antioch rolled away with the title and will try to make a run like last year's fourth-place state finish.
“I still believe we haven't bowled to our potential,” said Sequoits coach Jeff Childress. “I still think we have the ability to bowl a lot better. I thought it was a little bit more difficult this year.”
Stevie Lindberg led the Sequoits with a runner-up finish of 1,212 and had the highest game — 268 — of the day.
Other Antioch scores included Symantha Rolph (1,182), Allyson Mathias (1,080), Kelsey Schreiber (734, four games), Katy Bain (693, four games), Samantha Dvorak and Sarah Gagnon each 335 over two games.
Vernon Hills had a shot at a state berth before falling just short.
“We did the best we could do and bowled our best all season,” said Cougars coach Andra Hjelm. “It was nice to be bowling in a place where the team was comfortable bowling. We thought we were in the hunt all day and were not lower than fourth place. We were always gunning for it.”
The Cougars' Randi Stone earned a state berth as the top individual bowler with a six-game series of 1,242. Stone started with games of 202, 220 and 221 for a 643 series, then followed with 194, 225 and 180 for a 599 series.
“Being on my home lanes, I thought I had advantage,” Stone said. “Nice to do well, but there's bad days on home lanes, too. I kept up with the oil pattern and tried to stay up with the shot.”
The other advancing bowler was Stevenson sophomore Ashley Wittert, who finished third with 1,201. Wittert had three games over 200 and a high of 225.
“It's a big honor for me,” Wittert said. “I thought to myself what I had to do and what I had to accomplish. I had to stay positive on how I wanted to bowl.”
At Fenton
Freshman Reba Hall rolled the highest individual score of 1,257 to lead Leyden to the Fenton sectional championship at Wood Dale Bowl. Other Leyden scores included junior Sara Danek (262), freshman Nicole Lassin (797), freshman Erika Pimental (991), sophomore Danielle Trevino (1,001) and junior Nicole Witczak (751).