The Oswego High School varsity girls bowling team went to Town and Country Lanes in Joliet Saturday, Dec. 9 to compete in a field of 44 of the best teams across the State. Strikefest is widely regarded as the best regular-season high school girls bowling tournament of the year and, as a result, many college coaches are at the event to recruit for their programs.
At this tournament, teams are broken into divisions after the morning round based on total pinfall. Divisions include Copper, Bronze, Silver, and the coveted Gold Division. Each division offers the opportunity for teams to earn awards.
Joliet West took second place in the Gold Division behind champion Harlem High School
The Oswego Panthers took sixth place in the Gold Division. The Panthers had a solid and steady morning round, averaging 190 as a team on games of 984, 925, and 937 for a 2,846 team total in round one. Seniors Hailey Jourdan and Amber Lymenstull led the way for the Panthers in the morning and Jourdan shot 660 and Lymenstull rolled 610 in the morning. Oswego’s solid morning performance was enough to place them among the top 12 teams of the tournament and the opportunity to compete in the Gold Division in the afternoon.
To start the afternoon round, three Oswego bowlers shot games of over 200, including Lymenstull (238), Jourdan (202), and junior Rhiannon Reynolds (222) to help the team shoot 1,024 and give the team its best game of the day. The girls started to break down quickly after game four and the Panthers fought hard to adjust to the changing conditions, but the team had a tough game five and finished with its team low of 866.
In the final game of the tournament, Oswego stepped up and made some better adjustments while shooting spares at a high level and finished with 944 for a solid 2,834 afternoon.
The Panthers’ six-game total of 5,680 was good for sixth place overall in the tournament. Lymenstull finished with 638 afternoon series and 1,248 on the day (208 average) which was good for ninth place in the individual standings. Jourdan shot 565 in the afternoon set and finished with 1,225 (204 average) across the six games for a 12th-place finish. Contributing to the Panthers’ strong finish were Reynolds (1,085), Madi Watson (1,091), Sunny Newell (538 in three games) and Sammy Watson (493 in three games).
— Oswego High School