JOLIET - Forty-four teams gathered Saturday at Town & Country Lanes for the 28th Annual Strikefest tournament, hosted by Plainfield North and is considered the best regular season girls’ bowling tournament in the state.

After three morning three games, the teams are split into divisions, with the top 12 in Gold, then Silver, Bronze and Copper. The top 12 teams scores from the morning carry over, as the other divisions use only the afternoon three games to determine place. All six games count for the individual placing.

Hononegah, which trailed York after the morning session by 199 pins and in sixth place, came back to win the Gold team title with a six-game total of 5,819.

Lockport had the best team finish for the area, as the Porters placed fourth in the Gold division with a six-game total of 5,549. The Porters were led by senior Emma Punter, who placed sixth overall with a 1,219 total.

The Porters are the defending state champions, but that was in 2019, as last season was wiped out because of the pandemic. They also have a new coach, as former assistant Linda Siezaga is now in charge.

“For the first time experience this as the head coach it was exciting and nerve-wracking all at the same time,” Siezaga said. “I thought we threw the ball well most of the day and like any tournament there is good luck and bad luck, and I think we had just a little more bad luck today.

“A year off of not being able to really work on your game and get in a house to practice does affect the scoring and I think you saw that today across the board. Plus, as you talk to coaches the overall numbers seem to be done. Hopefully that comes back, but it’s early in the season and we learned a lot from this experience today.”

Punter was happy with both the team’s performance and her own in the big tournament setting.

“Overall, it was a good day for our team,” Punter said. “We worked well as a team, our last game was a little off but we will fix that. That was also true for my final game, but I made some corrections midway through and that helped.”

Also, in the Gold, Joliet West finished sixth (5,531). The Tigers had two individuals in the top 12 as junior Malaya Chavez placed second (1,329) and sophomore Gracie French was 12th (1,188).

“We are a very young team overall and today was the first some of our bowlers to experience a tournament like this,” West coach Jeff Bailey said. “We need to work on our weaknesses and build off of our strengths. To finish second overall is an accomplishment for Malaya [Chavez], but I also know she wanted to win and Gracie [French] has really worked hard over the summer to improve her game and that showed today on a big stage.”

“I felt very consistent today and I have worked very hard to become a better bowler this year,” Chavez said. “I’m very proud of our team and now we know what we have to do to continue to get better as the season progresses. It’s about the end of the season, not today.”

Other area individuals in the top 25 (medalists) were Hailey Bozych from Plainfield East in 14th and Bri Gillson from Minooka in 17th.

In the Silver, Minooka placed second, with Lincoln-Way West fifth, Plainfield South sixth and Plainfield East 11th. Plainfield Central was second in the Bronze and Plainfield North won the Copper, with Lincoln-Way Central second, with Morris finishing eighth.