Team depth may just be the key ingredient that separates this year’s boys bowling team at Oak Lawn Community High School from very successful team’s it has had in the recent past. The Spartans had their best tournament of the season, knocking down 6,472 pins in six games last weekend at Palos Lanes on their way to winning their third Illinois High School Association Regional Championship in the last four years.
Only four bowlers earn All-Regional honors, and Oak Lawn had three of them. Gavin Rybicki finished in second place overall, Justin Canvin was third, and David Bush was fourth. Peter Garcia also had a great day finishing in the Top 10.
Now, that is depth, and the Spartans advance to this weekend’s IHSA Sectional Tournament at Thunder Bowl with a chance to move on to the IHSA State Finals in O’Fallon, Ill.
The regional championship was impressive, but the Spartans are used to success. The week before, Oak Lawn won the South Suburban Conference Red championship in similar dominating fashion. It was the fourth-consecutive conference crown for head coach Kevin Walery and the Oak Lawn bowlers. The team finished 317 pins ahead of Shepard and 460 pins in front of Reavis.
Garcia bowled his first-ever 300-game in game 6 and was the Individual Conference Championship. His teammates, Canvin and Rybicki, finished in second and third place respectively. All three won all-conference honors. Bush finished just out of the medals in 11th place, and Charlie Dell and Vinny McBrien were also instrumental in completing the four-peat. It is anyone’s guess as to which boy will be the top bowler for Oak Lawn from tournament to tournament.
On the junior varsity level, the Spartans finished in third place, just behind Reavis and Shepard. Decimus Pecina took sixth-place, Jose Zavala took seventh, and Ethan Aguinaga finished ninth to each earn all-conference awards for Oak Lawn.