By Jeff DeGraw
For the Bugle
A dominate victory, a comeback and an emotional last qualifying battle were the highlights this past Saturday at the girls regional bowling hosted at Channahon Lanes. This regional was one of three regional sites that feed in to next week’s sectionals at Illinois Valley Super Bowl in Peru, IL.
Minooka dominated the team battle from the very first game and cruised to an easy regional title. The Indians bowled a six game total of 6, 145. 
Also winning individual honors was Minooka junior Kristina Sickler who rolled a 1,389 six-game series. The Indians also had three other bowlers place in the top 11 as freshman Kiara Backstrom was sixth (1,235), freshman Jenna Newton 10th (1,216) and junior Gina Russell 11th (1,206).
“This means a lot to win the team title,” Sickler said. “The individual title is great as long as we bowl well as a team, that is what comes first. We did this as a group, a team and we are all best friends. We have such a young team and Gina [Russell] and I are the old veterans as juniors. We always work together and pick each other up as a group. It was special to win at this house, this is our place now.”
“Each week we continue to get better and that is what you want at this time of the season,” Minooka coach Frank Yudzentis said. “Especially with such a young team, they have really bought into the process of getting better each week. Kristina and Gina have really taken the leadership role of this team seriously and have matured as leaders.
“Today, we just went out and bowled our game, picked up spares, which is so important because that is where your scoring comes from.”
The comeback came from the Tigers of Joliet West. They dug themselves an early hole and had to fight all the way back. After being in 8th place after the first game, the Tigers finally made it into a qualifying spot after game five and bowled their best game in the finale to take the runner-up spot. Their afternoon three games were only nine pins off Minooka.
“It was nerves at the beginning,” Tiger coach Jeff Bailey said. “It was an emotional day and we used everyone on the team. We would have four very good games, but just couldn’t find that fifth. But everyone came together, stepped up when needed. This was a total team effort.”
Camryn Feehan finished second overall with a score of 1,313, with Alexis Robbins finishing 16th and Barbara Lunsford finished 18th.
The battle for the final qualifying spot was back and forth during the entire sixth game between Plainfield Central and Lincoln-Way East.
The Wildcats started the day well and was in second place after two games but couldn’t find the rhythm until that final game.
East started the final game down to the Wildcats by 65 pins, but they quickly made that up and even had a lead of about forty pins heading to the final four frames of the sixth game. But in those final frames, Central got the ball rolling and quickly, not only made up the ground, but pushed the lead to the final 40 pin cushion to secure the final sectional qualifying spot.
“I only have one thing to say about this team,” an emotional Central coach Connie McGrath said. “They stayed together and I’m so, so proud of them. They did this together as a team and that is what got them through the day.”
Freshman Ari Guarino lead the Wildcats with a 1,246 to finish in fifth place. Megan Allensworth placed 15th, with Chloe Cavanaugh in 17th and Aly Bilak in 19th.
Joliet Central finished their team season with an eighth place finish, with junior Tara Tindall finishing in 21st place and qualifying as an individual for sectionals.
Plainfield South was 10th with freshman Laura Rohlfs leading the Cougars with a 29th place finish.