Girls bowling: Palatine's Phillips, Schaumburg shine at regional
Tarrah Phillips made the most of her opportunity Saturday at Elk Grove Bowl.
The Palatine freshman, who said she didn't expect to be on varsity this year, rolled games of 225 and 202 in the Conant girls bowling regional.
Those marks and a series total of 1,061 helped Phillips claim one of the individual qualification spots at next week's Hoffman Estates sectional tourney.
Mid-Suburban League champion Schaumburg advanced as a team by winning the regional with a pinfall of 5,543, and senior Kylie Frick took medalist honors with a 1309, including a 279 game.
Buffalo Grove (5,158) and the host Cougars (5,054) also qualified.
"After I threw my 202," said Phillips," I felt like I had a good game underneath me. Now that I'm moving on (to sectionals) I want to just keep doing what I'm doing, but maybe try some new things as well."
"We had Tarrah and Payton Prospal, two outstanding freshmen, come into the program this year," said Pirates coach John Burke. "They both have a bright future. They've got this season under their belt now and they'll be even stronger next year."
Rebecca Howard (1,236, a 277 game, and second place overall) led the way for BG. Howard opened her fourth game, the 277, with 9 consecutive strikes.
"We were here to show what we're made of," said Howard, a junior. "It was really great today to show how good we can be when we play our best. Our afternoon was better than our morning - during the fourth, fifth and sixth games we were out to prove to everyone that we could get it done."
Hersey earned the final team spot at next Saturday's sectional at Poplar Creek Bowl, with senior Cate Gudaitis (1,097 six-game series) pacing the Huskies.
"I knew we had to be in our zone today," said Gudaitis, "because we're a team that's better in the drive. It was super oily out here today and I think we did a great job of fighting through that to get into our perfect lane positions."
Emilie St. Clair, Mykah Harper, and Jessica Donovan of Hoffman Estates earned at-large berths, as did Gabby Vitale and Amanda Kouros of Lake Zurich, Nina Tierney of Prospect, Autumn Fox from Barrington, and Savannah Peters of Rolling Meadows.
Gina Lenoci (third individually with an 1,182 effort) helped in the Schaumburg win while Jemma Skweres (1,148, fourth) led Conant.
Senior Jenica Baron of Barrington also punched her ticket to sectionals by firing a 1,090.
Baron will bowl for Tulane University next season but for now is focused on getting back to the state tournament in Rockford, where she placed 21st in 2018.
"Everyone on our team has improved so much this season," said Baron. "This is the most successful year that Barrington has ever had, and I think we all felt the pressure here today but everybody performed well."
Elizabeth White shot 1,116 for Conant, Haylie Frick of the Saxons finished at 1,115, while Sara Clay (1,141, fifth place) made a big contribution to the BG placement.
"As a team we struggling at the start," said Clay, "but we motivated each other and began to pick it up. That 277 that Rebecca (Howard) shot really inspired us. "
"We've been growing week by week as a team," said Bison coach Chris VanGrondelle. "It's always a new challenge for us but we came out in the afternoon and Rebecca started us out with that first nine. It just seemed like when she did that everybody just relaxed."