Girls Bowling: Joliet West grinds out victory

Updated: December 3, 2011 11:18PM

The title for the Joliet West girls bowling invite was apropos.

The Grindfest was just that for the Tigers and Julianne Kowalski, who each came away with championships in the eight-team tournament Saturday at Town and Country Lanes in Joliet.

Joliet West had a 4,554 pinfall in the split tournament. The morning session was regular bowling. The afternoon session featured a Baker format in which each girl bowls a frame at a time each game.

“When (Joliet West coach) Justin (McNally) and I put this tournament together, this is what we wanted,” Joliet West assistant coach Doug Pierce said. “We wanted the girls to learn because this is what they will bowl like in college.”

Joliet West averaged a 158 in the morning and a 174 during the Baker games in the afternoon.

“When they got to the Baker games, they went bananas,” Pierce said. “They were awesome. It was a tough shot and when it broke down, it dried up a little funny. You had to make quality shots and our girls made quality shots.”

Kowalski averaged a 181 in the morning to put herself in position to win the individual title. The sophomore finished with a 764 pinfall.

“The tougher the shot, the sharper she is,” McNally said. “She’s a little more used to bowling this shot, so that helped her out a lot.”

“I’ve bowled on it twice before so I was pretty much set to go,” Kowalski said of the modified sport shot. “You can’t get it out. You need to focus on your target and hit the head pin.”

Teammate Angie Palomar also earned a medal for second-place high game with a 202.

Lincoln-Way West’s Morgan Flaherty rolled the high game with a 238.

Plainfield East’s Ivory Miles had the second-best high series with a 736, while Plainfield South’s Shannon Jacobazzi rolled a 701, which was third-best.

The Cougars took second with a 4,155 total.

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