CHANNAHON – It was survive and advance on Saturday at the Minooka bowling regionals, held at Channahon Lanes, as the top-four teams and top-10 individuals not on a qualifying team advanced to next week’s sectionals at Illinois Valley Super Bowl in Peru.

Joliet West (5,811), Lincoln-Way West (5,559), Minooka (5,499) and LaSalle-Peru (5,496) grabbed the top-four team qualifying spots. It was the Tigers’ first regional crown since 2015. Joliet Central was fifth, Lincoln-Way Central in sixth and Morris was 11th.

“This feels good, especially coming back after the conference last weekend,” Joliet West coach Jeff Bailey said. “These girls have worked hard and are gaining confidence each week. We still need to work on our spares, but we will do that and get prepared for the sectionals next weekend. At this time of the season it’s all about just getting to the next week.”

The Tigers were led by individual champion Malaya Chavez, who rolled a six-game series of 1,360 and the third-place finish of Maddie Millsaps (1,256), both juniors. Ella Steinke, a sophomore, took sixth (1,188).

“I had a lot of confidence coming into today after bowling a 279 yesterday in a practice game,” Millsaps said. “I was the only one in the bowling alley when I did it, but it showed what I can do. This has been a pretty crazy year with coming together as a team, working on the improvement of my game and finding myself as a bowler. We wanted to win, but you first just have to bowl well as a team and it worked out today.”

The Warriors were led by the by the second-place finish of senior Katy Skonicki (1,259) and the fourth-place finish of fellow senior Allie Dague (1,229).

“It was fun today,” Warrior coach Scott Ullian said. “I’m super proud of this team and they really came together today. Our main goal was to advance, so first goal accomplished. This team has worked hard as a group and deserved to move on to the sectionals.”

Minooka used their best game of the day in the sixth game, as it rolled a 941 to overtake LaSalle-Peru for the third position. The three-pin difference came down to the final frame as senior Bri Gillson needed the first two strikes and at least a seven on the third ball to finish third.

Minooka had two finishers in the top 10 as sophomore Ashlee Pruim was eighth and freshman Kaylee McNab was ninth.

“We bowled well today, especially considering we are so young and we only have one bowler, Bri Gillson, who has bowled in the state tournament before,” Minooka coach Frank Yudzentis said. “This is such great experience for this group and today they really came through at the end. That showed a lot and how they are really coming together. Today was about moving on to the sectionals next week. Just like next week, it’s about finishing in the top four to get to the state finals.”

Six area bowlers qualified as individuals, including senior Abby Nolan and junior Samantha Mann from LW-Central, seniors Mia Cerrillo and Maddalyn Butler from Joliet Central, senior Carly Kowalik of Providence Catholic and junior Elizabeth Wietting from Reed-Custer.