By Mike Miazga
Correspondent
York girls bowling coach Katie Turnbull has plenty of reasons to be optimistic after the Dukes’ first two tournaments of the season.
York opened the 2016-2017 season by taking seventh at the Plainfield Central tournament. The Dukes took 17th and ninth there the previous two years.
“It’s our best start to the season yet. I take that as a very good sign for things to come,” said Turnbull.
At Plainfield Central, junior Lauren Gould led the Dukes with a 1,065 series, which included high games of 203, 193, 191, 175 and 171. She had three-game series’ of 549 and 516. Gould finished 18th individually. Senior Jessica Cwik was 21st with a 1,060 series. She finished the day with games of 184, 175 and 209 (568 series). She rolled a 184 game in the morning.
Junior Carly Laurx had a 980 series with high games of 179, 169 and 168. Senior Jenny Diamond had a 955 series with high games of 184, 182 and 172. Nora O’Brien, a junior, had a 486 three-game series with a high game of 182, while sophomore Krystyna Panek had a 450 three-game series with a high game of 161.
The Dukes then finished second at the Rich East tournament. York’s JV team was third at Rich East.
Cwik, Gould and Laurx finished in the Top 10 at Rich East, while Panek was in the Top 10 in the JV field. Cwik rolled a 1,103 series, while Gould had a 1,102 series. Cwik and Gould are the team captains “and leaders of the team,” said Turnbull.
York is coming off a 2015-2016 season where it went 5-2 in the West Suburban Conference and took third (tied for second record-wise).
Diamond, juniors O’Brien and Lauren Steck and sophomore Panek are key newcomers to the bowling team. “They all have made huge strides in the off-season. We are excited to see how they will do throughout the year,” said Turnbull.
Turnbull also has strength in numbers at the JV level. “We have an awesome field of freshmen this year,” she said. “It’s our biggest freshman class yet and they are improving immensely each day in practice. They are the future of the program so they are very important to me. I love watching them improve each day.”
Turnbull added experience is on York’s side. “We have a lot of returning girls who know what it takes to be successful,” she said. “We have goals we want to meet, winning conference, winning regionals for a third straight year and qualifying for state,” she said. “We have the talent to accomplish that. A combination of experience and talent is a great sign for things to come this season. This team is focused. Each day they practice with a purpose and are constantly trying to improve. They are fierce competitors in that respect.”
Turnbull has high hopes for the continued success of the Dukes bowling program this season. “Jim Hedman (assistant coach) and myself feel very optimistic,” said Turnbull. “We have been entering teams into tournaments with some of the best teams in the state and we are putting up some of our best numbers against really good, strong competition.”
