Oregon bowling heads to state

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Competing against much larger schools, the Oregon bowling team managed to punch its ticket to the state tournament for only the second time in school history. The Hawks took third place at the sectional, to earn one of the four state berths.

Here are the enrollment figures of the other top-placing squads: Harlem (1,928), Dixon (760), Huntley (2,996) Yorkville (1,974) and Hononegah (1,911). Once again, it shows how masterly coach Al Nordman is in getting the most out of a smaller pool of potential bowlers, though Oregon does co-op with Winnebago.

A key was balanced scoring. The top four bowlers all ranged in the 1,200s and a combined score of 1,126 came from two bowlers.

Similar to high-school golf, that is all you’re looking for in state advancement – consistency in your scorers. Those five marks added up to 6,105 and a safe cushion of about 100 pins from fifth place.

With February on our doorstep, it is not too early to look at the IHSA basketball postseason. Girls regionals start in a couple weeks and the boys to start the following week.

To me, that is a harbinger of spring and an indication of how fast winter is moving along.

The big story continues to be an impending 2A collision between the girls from Byron and Stillman Valley in the sectional. Last week’s AP rankings had them tied for No. 2 behind Breese Central.

Also ranked in the top 10 from that sectional was Aurora Central Catholic. Whoever emerges from the sectional will likely face No. 4 Peoria Notre Dame.

The area 2A boys is much milder, with the Sterling super-sectional the weakest in the state.

Far and away, the toughest sectional has No. 2 Belleville Althoff, No. 5 Pickneyville and No. 6 Benton. Breese Central is No. 10 and may not even make it out of the sub-sectional.

Like the Byron and Stillman girls, in 1A boys, highly-regarded Pecatonica and Eastland are on the same path to a sectional final, with the Indians already owning two wins over Eastland.

Eastland lost by 31 points the first time after trailing 16-0 to start the game. In round two, Eastland fell behind early again, 24-6, with Pec scoring on every possession in the first quarter.

That’s almost impossible to overcome, but Eastland only lost 63-55.

Beating a quality team three times is difficult. The pressure will be on Pec, as Eastland has proven capable of being at their level.

If those two end up in the sectional final, the gym at Pecatonica will be one of the most raucous sites in the state on March 7. For the record, the 2A girls sectional final will be in Rock Falls.

Did you know that the fastest-growing high school sport for girls is wrestling? Before 2018, only six states sanctioned it. Now, 45 states, including Illinois, have sanctioned it.

In the past decade, participation numbers have skyrocketed to 50,000. That’s 20 percent of the amount boys have, but a huge increase. This year will be the fourth state tournament in what is still a one-class system.

Next week will be the boys wrestling regionals, with Byron hosting 1A. Last year, the Tigers scored a dramatic 196-195 win over perennial favorite Lena-Winslow.

An up-and-coming Oregon program looks to do the same this year, with Byron also being in contention.

After Mark Andrews of Baltimore dropped a potential game-tying extra pass against Buffalo in the AFC playoffs, the Bills’ fans responded with a sympathetic heart to Andrews. Over $100,000 was raised towards Andrews’ favorite charity.

The “Bills Mafia”, as their fandom is known, wanted to offer support to Andrews, who has received much abuse from his own fans after dropping the pass and also fumbling earlier in the game. A Bills fan started the GoFundMe account after seeing saw how distasteful the comments towards Andrews were.

This isn’t new for Buffalo, as they have made similar donations to former opponents in the past.

I caught the second half of the Forreston and Oregon boys basketball game last Saturday and came away impressed with the performance of Kendall Erdmann, who had 35 points.

This game was tied 27-27 at halftime, before Erdmann took over and led his team to a 73-50 win. The Hawks had no answer for him, nor the rest of the Cardinals, who out-executed Oregon on both sides of the court in the second half with precision passing, hot shooting and being in the right spot on defense.

Credit to Mickey Probst for taking three defensive charges himself. I always remember in basketball practice how much it meant to our coaches when someone would sacrifice their body for a charge, especially against a big, bulky guy.

Andy Colbert is a longtime Ogle County resident with years of experience covering sports and more for multiple area publications.