Boys Bowling: Sandburg wins title at Oak Forest tournament
By Jeff Vorva For Sun-Times Media December 1, 2012 10:58PM
Sandburg’s Tyler Knight is surrounded by teammates after his sixth strike in a row in the sixth game of the Bengal Bowling Invitational. | Jeff Vorva~For Sun-Times Media
Updated: January 3, 2013 6:28AM
Sandburg senior Taylor Knight picked a great time to have the best score of his bowling career.
With the Eagles trailing Romeoville by 82 pins heading into the sixth and final game of the ninth annual Bengal Invitational on Saturday at Oak Forest Bowl, Knight buried seven strikes, knocked down seven and made the spare in the eighth frame and struck out the rest of the game for a 277. Sandburg won the 16-team tournament with a 6,185, followed by Romeoville’s 6,131 and Lockport’s 6,046.
Knight said he averages under 200 and his previous career best was a 268 two years ago during tryouts.
“I wasn’t paying attention to numbers, I was just trying to bowl my best,” Knight said. “I tugged the ball in the eighth frame. I blocked it out and went back to what I was doing.”
Romeoville took a 206-pin lead over the rest of the field in the first game after the Spartans rolled a 1,237. Sandburg was in fourth and trailed the Spartans by 252 pins but slowly came back.
“We chipped away, chipped away, chipped away,” Sandburg coach Jeff Kwilose said. “They came out with a 1,287, which the whole building knew it. We weren’t even thinking first place to be honest with you. We just wanted to finish in the top five after the way we started.”
Lincoln-Way West’s Josh Glover won the individual title with a 1,395.
Glover, a Marist transfer, said he has drawn interest from colleges and has Wichita State as the leading school on his list.
Knight finished second with a 1,350 and teammate Steve Jacobsen took third with a 1,347.
Richards’ Steven Grant took fifth, Hillcrest’s Henry Bell was sixth, Lincoln-Way West’s Vince Pacione took eighth and Lockport’s Shane Matejcak was 10th.
