By Michael Wojtychiw
Taft’s Tyler Paulus knew what he had to do coming into Saturday’s city championship bowling meet at Waveland Bowl.
The sophomore, who finished 12 at the state meet last season, had a lot of confidence after his postseason run last year coupled with finishing first in the Chicago Public League’s boys bowling total pin total for the season. His 4,487 pins in the regular season were 460 more than the second-highest pin total. His 213.7 game average was the highest of any bowler in any of the three Public League divisions as well.
“I knew how good I could be, I just needed to be able to do it more,” Paulus said.
Paulus what he’d done on so many numerous occasions when he took to the lanes Saturday against the city’s best of the best and came out on top again, knocking down 1,344 pins, 66 more than Lane freshman Lucas Drisdel.
“What really helped me today was the team aspect of it all,” he said. “We just picked each other up today, which ultimately helped me pull it out at the end.”
It wasn’t always an easy day for Paulus, however.
Because of how non-conference tournaments, as well as offseason tournaments, are structured, the CPL’s first-ever six-game championship meet wasn’t something new to Paulus. Even so, he was in fifth place halfway through the meet.
However, a 243 and 202 in games four and five catapulted Paulus to the top of the individual standings, but only 38 and 42 pins ahead of Lane’s duo of Jordan Landa and Drisdel. The sophomore’s fifth consecutive 200 game, a 259 to close out the day, cemented his title.
“Looking at the standings in between the games, I knew what I had to get to be up at first, so getting it done was what I was looking to do,” he said. “When we went to lunch, I knew how close we were in the standings, but after that I didn’t know.”
Lane may not have brought home an individual title, but three Top 10-finishes, led by second- and third-place finishes by Drisdel and Landa, helped the Champions claim their second city title in the past three seasons.
The Champions rolled a combined 5,964 pins, 398 pins ahead of Taft, which finished with 5,566 pins and Lincoln Park, which finished third with 5,126 pins.
“My guys executed extremely well today,” Lane coach Justin Perez said. “The guys are trying to get in the right mental space, they’re young guys, so getting in the right head space and not getting down was big for us. They’ve got a lot of skills, they went out and showed it.”
To say Lane’s season has been one of success might be an understatement.
Of the Champions’ seven tournaments they’ve bowled in, they’ve finished second three times and won four. In fact, according to a boys bowling coaches poll, Lane is ranked as the third-best team in the state.
“That’s really huge for CPS because only Morgan Park has been able to place in the top 12,” Perez said. “It shows what kind of talent we have here in the city.
“We focus on execution. After each tournament we participate in, we focus on what we need to do to improve on what we did the following weekend. They take it all in and concentrate on the next meet or tournament that’s ahead of us.”
Like Paulus, the Lane bowlers are no strangers to the six-game format. All of the weekend tournaments they’ve participated in have had a similar format and allowed all of the squad’s bowlers to get experience in all different kinds of situations.
One of those happened in the team’s fifth game when sophomore Connor Chen had to bow out of the tournament with a knee injury. Chen actually bowled the highest game of tournament, rolling a 267 in the day’s first game.
“The mentality of the next guy up , I think is because of the amount of tournaments we’ve had these guys do,” Perez said. “Not only the conference action, but exposing them to tournaments all around the state, them competing in them has really prepared them ti be the next man up.
“We’ve got a big roster, so a lot of these guys have been put in these situations before. It’s really because of all the work they’ve put in. They work so hard and are always ready.”
The teams now prepare for the IHSA state regionals this weekend. Taft hosts a regional Saturday at Habetler Bowl with fellow CPS teams Mather, Northside, Rickover and Von Steuben. Payton hosts a regional at Waveland with fellow CPS squads Lane, Lincoln Park, Kenwood, Chicago Academy, Jones, Foreman and Disney II. Dyett, Hancock, Kelly, Kennedy, Lindblom, Simeon and Solorio are at the Reavis Regional at Palos Lanes and Brooks, Morgan Park and Washington at the Stagg Regional, also at Palos Lanes. Both the Stagg and Reavis regionals are on Friday.
Final team standings (by total pins)
1. Lane 5,964 pins
2. Taft 5,566
3. Lincoln Park 5,126
4. Hancock 4,836
5. Kenwood 4,810
6. Morgan Park 4,792
7. Simeon 4,705
8. Kennedy 4,691
9. Brooks 4,588
10. Payton 4,394
Top 10 individual standings (by total pins)
1. Tyler Paulus, Taft 1,344 pins
2. Lucas Drisdel, Lane 1,278
3. Jordan Landa, Lane 1,232
4. Ricardo Garcia, Hancock 1,195
5. Kaden Coleman, Brooks 1,184
6. Minh son Tinh, Taft 1,170
7. Devyn Franklin, Simeon 1,168
8. Charlie Silver, Lincoln Park 1,162
9. Oliver Cook, Lincoln Park 1,158
10. Shaun Tasker Lewis, Morgan Park 1,143
Photos by Andrew Rosenthal/OSA
