ALTON — There’s more to being a top performer than meets the eye. Just ask Alton High’s Ashley Heistand, The Telegraph’s Girls Bowler of the Year who’s garnered accolades at the team and individual level.

The 2016-17 bowling season had plenty of highlights for Heistand and her teammates. But after a strong showing at their own regional tournament, no Redbirds advanced from the sectional tournament to the IHSA State Tournament in Rockford.

And for Heistand, also the bowler of the year as a junior, that was a big change after being the lone AHS bowler last year at state and advancing with the team as a freshman.

“It just didn’t pan out,” Heistand said. “But as a team, I think overall we bowled better than a lot of people might think at first.

“But I think I bowled better this year,” Heistand said. “I had more confidence and overall, the regular season and regional went pretty well.”

The Redbirds finished second at the Triad Regional behind the Kahoks. Heistand was fourth overall with a 1,235 pin total.

But the Belleville Sectional the following week at Bel-Clair Bowl was ”one of those days,” Heistand said.

“It was an off day for everybody. Not sure exactly what happened, but it happens.”

What happened was a 12th-place finish by the Redbirds in the team standings and a 1,084 pin total for Heistand, leaving her out of the running for berth at the state tournament in Rockford. In fact, no Telegraph-area individuals or teams advanced to the state tournament.

At the regional, Alton finished ahead of Triad, Jersey and Highland, among others. But at the sectional, the Redbirds trailed all those schools in the final standings.

That sectional tournament was Heistand’s last as a varsity high school bowler. She had already decided that she wasn’t going to pursue a college bowling career. Not that she couldn’t, but that she knew that finding time for team bowling would be difficult once she started classes.

“I’m going to go into nursing,” said Heistand, who will begin taking classes at Lewis and Clark Community College this fall. “It’s very time-consuming and it’s a big commitment, but it’s what I want to do. It was a tough decision, but after thinking about it and talking to a lot of people about it, I decided going with college bowling probably wasn’t the best path.”

Heistand, who started bowling at the former Riverboat Lanes in Godfrey when she was 8 years old, said the experiences she’s had in the sport are something she’ll always treasure.

“In bowling I met a lot of friends,” she said. “On the teams I was on and the teams we bowled against. In high school, I bowled with the best friends (Claire Gorman and Elizabeth Hanke).

“And I had some great coaches. I learned so much from (former AHS coach) Jeff Woszczynski and (current coach) Dave Meyer,” she said. “Coach Meyer coached me in the offseason and I became more confident.

“I’ll miss bowling for sure, but I’ll still bowl in leagues when I can. I’m not totally giving it up.”