Girls bowling: Antioch able to reach Saturday's round

Off and rolling at the girls state bowing tournament, Antioch needed a strong finishing game to reach the second day.

The Sequoits rolled a 972 in their last game to reach the top 12 and advanced into Saturday. They finished in 11th place with 5,303 pins and made the cut by 34 pins.

"We know the shot now," Antioch coach Phil Lindberg said. "The girls just started trusting things. Our goal was always to make the second day. This group of girls still has a couple more years to go. Now that we made the big cut, we would like to be in the top five Saturday."

O'Fallon leads after the first six games with a team total 6,174 pins. Harlem sits in second place (6,099) and Minooka is third (5,815) at Cherry Bowl in Rockford.

Antioch started the day with a respectable 2,607 with games of 882, 878 and 847 which left it in 18th place. Then in the afternoon, the Sequoits put together games of 859, 865 and the 972 for a 2,696 that vaulted them into the top 12.

Leading the Sequoits was Lynn Michalec with 1,168. Kayla Tikovitsch (1,064), Alyssa Tanner (1,045), Alyssa Olson (1,015) and Allison Kane (1,011) also contributed.

Grant tried to roll its way into a second day but settled in 23rd place with 4,886 pins. The Bulldogs had a 2,515 for the first three games and followed up with a 2,371.

Madeleine Cimo led the Bulldogs with an 1,130 over the six games and qualified as an individual for six more games on Saturday.

The other Grant bowlers were Autumn Hernandez (1,013), Marisa Garcia (1,009), Katie Dinschel (890), Hana Yazdani (429) 3 games, Maddison Knuth (304, two games) and Zoe Hernandez (111).

Jasmine McKeel of Wauconda made her way and qualified with a 1,221. She had a 611 in the morning set with a 248 third game and followed up with a 246 in game four then finished with 197 and 167 for a 610 in the afternoon.

"I'm excited about making it," McKeel said. "I would've liked to have scored higher. Once I had the 246 game, I started to think about making it and had a lot of confidence. There's a lot of good competition out here and I really like it. I really would like to get a medal (top 12). I just need a few big games and make good shots."

Rebecca Hagerman of Harlem was the top individual bowler a 1,446, good for a 241 average.