Chanting their Red Raider rallying cry, both boys bowling teams put their hands together to prepare for their second meet of the season. Unfortunately, the varsity boys bowling team lost their meet, but that did not stop them from being proud of how they played.

The team lost to Geneva High School 3095-2679 at the Nov. 16 meet at Bowl-Hi Lanes

This meet was special to the team because Coach Jacob Wagner gave some JV players a chance to experience the adrenaline of a varsity game. The varsity team was still present, playing and cheering on their fellow bowlers.

“Tonight we let our JV guys throw against [Geneva’s] varsity. I thought that was a really good experience for them. They got to see what it’s really like. I’m really proud of them, they worked hard, they didn’t let their emotions get the best of them, which is really good,” Wagner said.

Though senior Joshua Waters was playing for the JV team, and not varsity as usual, he was still very happy to see the outcome of some of the newer bowlers. “I believe that they did really well, and I know they’ll do really well next year,” Waters said. “It’s all about team improvement and growth, that’s what I’m really hoping to see for the rest of the season.”

As round one comes to an end sophomore Landen Conforti takes the highest score of 212 points while senior Trent Regalado takes second with 198 thanks to his five strikes in a row. Conforti continues to take the lead in both round two and three, leading to the highest average score on the team of 193.

Though the varsity team lost, there are exciting accomplishments that came from this meet. For example, JV bowler, senior Jackson Swanson, beat his personal best by scoring his highest meet achieving 390 points. This was also the largest number of accumulated points for the JV team. 

“The meet was great… It was my first one ever and it was so fun. I feel like I did great, I bowled my best I have all season and had so much fun,” Swanson said.

The bowling team’s meets may be at a 50/50 rate as of right now, but as far as tournaments go, they have been very successful. “We finished third in the Sycamore tournament which was awesome, it was our goal to get in the top three. Then we wanted to get in the top 10 of the last tournament out of 39 teams in the Lancer invite, and we got ninth which was awesome,” Wagner said.

This may not have been the most fortunate meet for the team, but it is important to note that their previous meet, against Belvidere North High School on Nov. 8, was a success. You can catch the next varsity boys bowling home game on Nov. 29 against McHenry to see if they can bring back their winning streak.