IESA Headlines

2019 IESA Bowling State Tournament

Students from 69 Illinois Elementary School Association (IESA) member schools will compete in the ninth annual IESA Bowling State Tournament at Town and Country Lanes in Joliet on April 12 & 13. There will be 288 students (boys and girls---not counting substitutes) who will compete in the event this weekend. A complete listing of the participating students and schools is located on the IESA website at:

https://www.iesa.org/activities/bo/results_Sectional_Advancers.asp?Year=2019&Gender=Girls

https://www.iesa.org/activities/bo/results_Sectional_Advancers.asp?Year=2019&Gender=Boys

The IESA Bowling State Tournament will serve as the largest known Scratch Varsity Middle School event in the country.

Prior to 2018, there was no sectional competition. All bowlers who registered for the event bowled in the finals. This led to a waiting list to participate in the bowling finals. Due to the growth and to accommodate all bowlers, sectional competition was initiated in 2018 so bowlers must now qualify from a sectional to advance to the state finals. Sectional competition was held for IESA state bowling series last Saturday at four sites across the state. The top six teams in each sectional plus the top 12 individuals not on one of the top six teams qualified for the state finals. One of the girls’ sectionals (Sectional D) only had 5 full teams participate and to make sure the state final field was full, a seventh team from a different sectional qualified for the finals.

The state tournament consists of a boys and a girls division. All bowlers will compete in the preliminary round on Friday and each will bowl four games. The qualifying field for each division for the Saturday finals will be comprised of the top 10 teams and the top 32 individual bowlers not associated with one of the top 10 teams. Results will be available immediately on www.iesa.org after the completion of each round. The finals on Saturday will consist of six games (two rounds of three games each) and the awards will be given based on the 10-game combined total. All schools who qualified as a team will be eligible for team awards, with the top three teams receiving trophies. All bowlers are eligible for individual awards. The top 15 individual bowlers receive medals. The total cumulative pinfall throughout the entire tournament will be used to determine the team and individual champions.

The preliminary round on Friday is scheduled to begin at 9:15 a.m. for the girls and 1:40 p.m. for the boys. The finals begin on Saturday for both boys and girls with round two starting at 9:15 a.m. and round three scheduled to begin 45 minutes following the completion of round two. The awards ceremony will take place at approximately 3:00 p.m. or after the last round has been completed on Saturday. The complete tournament schedule is located on the IESA website at:

http://www.iesa.org/activities/bo/IESA-BO_Schedule.pdf

Complete tournament information, plus the FanZone can be found at www.iesa.org. Click on the Bowling line at the top of the IESA website home page.

Should weather become a factor, the IESA website will contain up-to-date information regarding the tournament playing schedule. Go to www.iesa.org.

The price of admission Friday is $5.00 for adults and $2.00 for seniors (62 and over) and students (K-8) and is good for all day Friday. Children younger than kindergarten are admitted free. The price of admission for Saturday will be $7.00 for adults and $3.00 for seniors and students (K-8). Children younger than kindergarten again are admitted free.

Results from prior years can be accessed at this link: https://www.iesa.org/activities/bo/. Simply select the year for which you desire results and click go.

For more information, please contact IESA Assistant Executive Director and Bowling Administrator Leslie Alappattu at leslie@iesa.org.