Amundsen Bowling Hopes to Earn Their Strikes at City Finals

Two seniors are leading the Amundsen girls bowling team into uncharted territory. It’s the first time the team has been conference champions in more than a decade and on Thursday, the girls will take that title to the North Side city finals.

If they place in the top four, they’ll advance to the city finals. 

The seven-person team is made up of mostly seniors and with each game scoring two points, the Vikings were 43-6 in the regular season.

For captains Eva Antar and Thu Mai, the team is a way to have fun with their friends. Mai has been bowling since middle school, and convinced Antar to join her junior year. 

There are no lightweight pink balls on this team; both captains are hurling 10-pound balls down the lane. Antar is averaging a 120 with her highest score at 154. And Mai pulls a 148 average with her top score at 168. 

Matches are three games with five bowlers. Like a relay, a team wants its top bowlers in the first and last spots. Antar leads off the rotation, with Mai as the anchor.

“If Eva starts a frame off well with a spare or strike, we’re at a good momentum,” coach John Evans said. “On the flipside, having Thu at the end, we can count on her to get us at least one mark on a team.”

The team was second in the conference going into the last week of the season. They had to face Schurz High School, who previously beat the Vikings. A win would earn them the conference title.

“Before the game, we were all nervous, I was shaking,” Mai said.

Amundsen won the first game, but got destroyed in the second, Evans said. But the team prevailed, bringing home a win and the conference championship.

“After we won, we felt relieved and proud, it was pretty good,” Antar said.

Evans took over the team in 2011 after helping for several years as the school’s athletic director. In his first year, the girls team made the top eight in the city.

The coach has been bowling since childhood, and kept up with the sport competing in leagues throughout his 20s.

But the girls aren’t the only ones seeing success under Evans. The boys team, who placed second to last in the conference last season, were also champions this year.

They won two games in the play-offs and finished in the top seven on the North Side. That ended their season, since the only the top four advance.

“It was huge for them,” the coach said. With only one senior, the boys team is looking to return four juniors and three sophomores.

Evans said the athletes can often be seen at Waveland Bowl practicing 10-12 games instead of the normal 2-3.