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The New Lenox Patriot 011118
The New Lenox Patriot 011118
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36 | January 11, 2018 | The New Lenox Patriot Sports<br />
newlenoxpatriot.com<br />
Boys Bowling<br />
LTHS’ consistency, Sandburg’s 300 bowler keep <strong>NL</strong> schools out of race<br />
RANDY WHALEN<br />
Freelance Reporter<br />
The Lockport Township<br />
boys bowling team didn’t<br />
capture the conference tournament<br />
last weekend.<br />
But the Porters were still<br />
the SouthWest Suburban<br />
Conference champions.<br />
The SWSC also factors<br />
in the regular season, so the<br />
Porters had enough points<br />
from that in the end to win<br />
the title. But there was one<br />
statistic that didn’t need any<br />
explanation. That was Cameron<br />
Crowe winning the individual<br />
title.<br />
The Sandburg junior<br />
rolled a 300 en route to capturing<br />
his second SWSC individual<br />
title in three seasons<br />
with a 1,515 total on Saturday,<br />
Jan. 6 at Orland Bowl.<br />
Crowe also won the<br />
SWSC Blue title as a freshman.<br />
Last season he gave<br />
way to Bolingbrook’s Alex<br />
Acosta, but helped the Eagles<br />
to win the SWSC as a<br />
team for the first time. This<br />
season he continues to be<br />
amazing and he and his<br />
freshman teammate - Timmy<br />
Novak made All-Conference<br />
and helped the Eagles to a<br />
rather resounding 6,629 total<br />
as they easily captured the<br />
days meet by nearly 300 pins<br />
over the Porters.<br />
“I’m so proud of my team<br />
and what we’ve done,”<br />
Crowe said. “We made a lot<br />
of spares and just rode that<br />
momentum.”<br />
Entering the day, Sandburg<br />
was sixth in the standings<br />
with 44 total points<br />
from conference competition.<br />
Each team gets four<br />
points per game won and<br />
an additional two points for<br />
capturing the 2-game series.<br />
The Eagles added 80 points<br />
to that total by finishing first<br />
and that vaulted them to second<br />
place overall with 124<br />
points.<br />
Lincoln-Way West’s Cam Jablonski bowls Saturday, Jan. 6, during the SWSC meet in Orland. Photos by Geoff Stellfox/22nd Century Media<br />
By finishing second on<br />
Saturday, the Porters added<br />
70 points to their 66 points<br />
and still won the conference<br />
by 12 points with a total of<br />
136. Thornridge, who beat<br />
Lockport in a dual earlier in<br />
the year, finished third.<br />
In the meantime, Crowe<br />
was knocking over nearly<br />
every pin he aimed at in the<br />
morning session. Employing<br />
his 2-handed lefty style, he<br />
had games of 279, 300, and<br />
228 for an 807 total. But that<br />
wasn’t even his best ever<br />
3-game total.<br />
“I bowled an 809 here [at<br />
Orland Bowl] my freshman<br />
year,” he said.<br />
After barely missing a 300<br />
in the opener, Crowe got it in<br />
Game No. 2.<br />
“I just hit a stride and I<br />
couldn’t miss,” he said. “I<br />
was just zoned in, locked<br />
in. I got a lot of breaks, but<br />
I bowled well.”<br />
His 300 game was the<br />
18th of his young career.<br />
“I just try to step up and<br />
think of it as another shot,”<br />
Crowe said of going for the<br />
300. “But you do start to feel<br />
more pressure because a lot<br />
of people are watching. It always<br />
feels good, of course.”<br />
Sandburg coach Jeff Kwilose<br />
knows he has a special<br />
bowler in Crowe.<br />
“I coached the state champion<br />
in Joey Kopera [in<br />
2012],” he said. “But Cameron<br />
is averaging 12-to-13<br />
pins better than Joey did. It’s<br />
just crazy.”<br />
West, Central fall short at<br />
title<br />
Lincoln-Way Central won<br />
a pair of combined SWSC<br />
championships in the 2006-<br />
07 and 2007-08 seasons.<br />
With a decade long gap, the<br />
Knights still had a chance<br />
for one this season entering<br />
the conference tournament,<br />
but things would have had<br />
to go exactly right with them<br />
winning it and Lockport<br />
placing third or lower.<br />
Obviously that wasn’t<br />
happening, Central finished<br />
fourth overall (98 points)<br />
and fourth at the tournament<br />
(6,246).<br />
“Our record (6-2) was<br />
second best in the regular<br />
season, but we split a lot<br />
of games so we were really<br />
fourth (48 points) overall<br />
going into the conference<br />
tournament,” Central coach<br />
Coley O’Connell explained.<br />
“Still we’re happy with the<br />
team overall. It’s all about<br />
[this] week [regionals], then<br />
the next week [sectionals],<br />
then the week after that<br />
[state].<br />
“We had a better afternoon<br />
[at conference] than we did<br />
in the morning. (3,150 after<br />
a 3,096 in the morning). We<br />
want to improve every game<br />
and Alex Nolan has been<br />
on fire the last three tournaments.<br />
He threw a 300 [the<br />
previous] week.”<br />
Nolan, a sophomore,<br />
placed third at the conference<br />
with a 1,424 total. That<br />
included a high of 275 in<br />
Game No. 5.<br />
“At conference and going<br />
into regional and sectionals,<br />
that’s when we need it,” said<br />
Nolan of why he was bowling<br />
better lately. “That’s<br />
what we grind to. The goal<br />
is to get to state. We haven’t<br />
done that in years [since finishing<br />
3rd in 2008].”<br />
It was at the Morgan Park<br />
Invitational on Thursday,<br />
Dec. 28 at Castaway Bowl<br />
in Calumet City where Nolan<br />
bowled his first 300 in<br />
competition. It happened<br />
during the second game of
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