Panthers seek strikes at state bowling

    The Reed-Custer Middle School boys and girls bowling teams will compete  at State this weekend.
    The Panthers competed at the IV Super Bowl in Peru last Saturday against 12 different teams with the top six teams advancing for state.
    The boys and girls teams will head to Town and Country Lanes in Joliet for the finals.
    “They qualified enough to advance on, and also made the cut over 50 percent, coming in fourth and fifth place,” said coach Robert Dillon. “They beat out 50 percent of the other teams. They will now bowl Friday, and if they qualify on Friday for individuals or team, they will move on to Saturday.”
    The Reed-Custer boys team consists of six participants, with four bowlers and two alternates.
    The girls team just has four bowlers, so all of them will get to compete.
    During the Sectional, on Reed-Custer’s boys side, Brandon Carlo took the top score for the Panthers, bowling a 492, which is the total of three games.
    William Crutchfield bowled a 455, Edward Gad scored 383, and Josey Wells finished with 380.
    On the girls side, Elizabeth Wietting finished iwth a 412, followed by Kayla Kohler (381), Julia Janopoulos (355) and Eva Mudro (309).
    The team will now spend the last few days practicing for the state tournament, where they will bowl four games on Friday, and if they qualify, they’ll bowl six more games on Saturday.
    “They are going to get practice in a little bit this week, but we don’t want them to over practice,” Dillon said. “They will be bowling a lot of games.”
    The teams will report to the bowling alley on Friday at 7:45 a.m., with the first round starting at about 9 a.m.
    If Reed-Custer is in the afternoon round of state, they will begin competition at 1:25 p.m.