Local high school bowlers are ready to strike at sectional
The coach of the only boys high school bowling program in the state to place in the top five at the IHSA state bowling tournament in each of the last five years, O’Fallon coach Mike Imes obviously knows what it takes to be successful in the postseason.
Now one step away from year another trip to the state finals, Imes hopes a second place finish at the Belleville East Regional last week was both a wake-up call and a learning experience for his team. The Panthers lost the title by three pins to Belleville East.
“Belleville East bowled well and deserved to win. It would have been nice to win a regional title, but we advanced. That’s what counts,” Imes said. “The one thing that bothers me is that we made mistakes that we usually don’t make.
“We missed some spares and there were a few situations where we would have a split and instead of making the smart play and going for the most pins, we tried to pick up the split and got nothing a few times.”
The Southwestern Conference champions, O’Fallon headlines a group of nine area teams and 20 individuals who will compete at the IHSA Collinsville Boys Sectional Bowling Tournament on Saturday at Camelot Bowl in Collinsville.
Belleville East, Triad, Alton, Civic Memorial, Columbia, Mascoutah, Collinsville and Highland are also competing in the six game tournament which also includes 20 local bowlers who will compete as individuals.
The top six teams in the 16 team field and top seven individuals not on those teams will advance to the Illinois High School Association State Bowling Tournament, Jan. 27-28 at St. Clair Bowl in O’Fallon.
Bowling begins at 9 a.m. with the first of two three-game blocks of bowling. O’Fallon, like Belleville East, Alton and host Collinsville are familiar with the lanes at Camelot Bowl which have, in the past, had very high scores.
“Collinsville, with it being its home house, has a slight advantage. But we’ve bowled well there in the past as I’m sure Belleville East and Also have as well,” Imes said. “I don’t know a lot about some of the teams coming in from the south, but I think we (Southern Illinois High School Bowling Conference) have a good shot of advancing several teams.”
The Panthers are led by two bowlers, Andrew Orf and Matthew Toohey who were all-state bowlers a year ago after placing in the top 12 at the state finals. Orf was third while Toohey placed 11th.
Lancers hope to move on
Better known as a baseball player as a former minor league pitcher, Belleville East coach Marcus Barriger is lately more involved in bowling than he is in baseball. Barriger played for and coached for Belleville in the Mon-Clair League for several years before retiring a couple years ago. Barriger was fine pitcher and helped the Valmayer Lakers to a championship one summer.
“I love coaching high school bowling. These kids are all great to work with and the excitement of being at and having your team bowl at the state tournament, is a great experience. Actually I get more nervous before the state tournament than I did playing baseball. And I’ve played baseball before 15,000 people before,” Barriger said. “To win the regional last week was great and to win a sectional title would be great as well. But the goal is to advance this week. Just advance.”
The Lancers got solid efforts a week ago from David Barrett-Ness, Jake Gray and David Gray.
Others to watch
The Triad Knights made history last week by winning their first regional bowling title in Salem. Individual champion Gavin Pisetta leads the Knights attack after finishing with a score of 1,422 pins last week.
Columbia and Mascoutah, two teams which finished behind Belleville East and O’Fallon last week, also have good chances of advancing as does Highland, which placed behind Triad.
Columbia was led by Seth Harris (1,266 last week), Mascoutah got a 1,258 from Noak Breakfield and Highland was led by Brandon Munie (1,375). Collinsville, on its home lanes, will be led by Ryan Warner.
Champion of the Belleville East regional last week, Althoff junior Jon Leshikar should be in the hunt for the championship again on Saturday after finishing with a 1,439 score last week. Other individuals to watch include Tyler Hunter of Freeburg, Sam Watson of Belleville West and Aaron Link of Waterloo.
This story was originally published January 20, 2017 at 7:51 PM with the headline "Local high school bowlers are ready to strike at sectional."