Collinsville wins Cahokia Bowling Sectional

After spending the entire 2015-16 Southern Illinois High School Bowling Conference season chasing, the Collinsville Kahoks not only caught the O’Fallon Panthers, they passed them on Saturday at the IHSA Cahokia Bowling Sectional.

Junior Clayton Hartman averaged 256 for six games to take individual honors while two teammates carried marks of 220 or better as Collinsville upset O’Fallon to win the team title at Bel-Air Bowl.

Hartmman finished with a six-game total of 1,540 to post a 21-pin victory over highly-touted O’Fallon junior Andrew Orf who shot a six-game total of 1,519. Included among Orf’s score was a three-game series of 818.

But despite the brilliance of Orf, it was the Kahoks depth that proved to be the difference. Sophomore Hayden Juenger (1,344) and senior Eric Mielke (1,329) also had great days for Collinsville, which finished the six-game competition with a team score of 6,795 while O’Fallon (6,761) and Belleville East (6,726) rounded out the top three teams who led the way at Bel-Air on Saturday.

Host Cahokia (6,345), Alton (6,285) and Jerseyville (6.241) completed the six schools that earned a trip to the IHSA Boys State Bowling Tournament, which begins on Friday at St. Clair Bowl in O’Fallon.

In addition to the 1,519 score put up by Orf, O’Fallon, which won the Southwestern Conference title and last rolled to the title at the Columbia Regional, also received solid efforts from Michael Toohey (1,400), Josh Bradshaw (1,354) and Josh Hess (1,309).

Sophomore Kurtis Murphy (1,455) and senior Kyle Dauphin (1,390) paced third place Belleville East. Senior Adam Browning led Cahokia (1,355), while Alton was led by Jacob Donahue (1,395).

Donahue’s total was helped tremendously by a 300 game.

Several metro-east individuals also advanced to the state finals on Saturday at Bel-Air Bowl. Earning state tournament trips on Saturday were Justin Simpson of Granite City (1,422), Keegan Spirek of Mater Dei (1,353), John Harbough of Gibault (1,350), Jordan Buske of Highland (1,343) and Daniel Hummel of Althoff (1,333).

Mascoutah senior Fletcher Hopkins won the wheelchair division with a score of 489.

Dean Criddle: 618-239-2661, @CriddleDean

This story was originally published January 24, 2016 at 6:15 PM with the headline "Collinsville wins Cahokia Bowling Sectional."