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.”

The Collinsville Kahoks and Alton Redbirds repeated their 1-2 finish at the Triad girls bowling regional Saturday.

Collinsville’s Madisyn Juenger led all bowlers at 1,363 from six games at Camelot Bowl in Collinsville and the Kahoks rolled to a second straight regional championship with 6,127 pins.

The top four teams in the 13-team field and top 10 bowlers not on those top four teams advance to next weekend’s Belleville East Sectional at Bel-Air Bowl. Alton was regional runner-up at 5,577 and will join Triad (5,270) and Jersey (5,080) in the sectional.

Juenger averaged 227 per game to lead the Kahoks, who got a 215 average from Mikayla Block.

Alton was led by sophomore Ashley Heistand, who averaged 206 per game with 1,235 pins. Sophomore Alex Bergin finished at 1,177 and junior Addison Beys rolled 1,156 for the Redbirds.

Jersey, with an all-senior lineup, got 1,076 from Bethany Stocks, 1,033 from Elle Farmer, and 1,014 from Lindsay Vanost.

Marquette Catholic junior Shelby Jones advanced as an individual with a 1,127 score. Civic Memorial sophomore Ashley Westbrook moved on with 1,119.

Edwardsville and Southwestern both send two entries to the sectional. The Tigers had sophomores Sydney Sahuri at 1,061 and Rachel McTague at 973. The Piasa Birds advanced senior Alyssa Norell at 1,113 and senior Kaitlyn Cathorall at 953.

BETHALTO — The Alton High bowlers notched a double victory Tuesday over Granite City in Southern Illinois High School Bowling Conference action at Airport Plaza Bowl.

The Alton girls posted a 49-0 victory over the Warriors and the Redbirds boys bowled a 29-11 victory.

Those wins came on the heels of the Southern Illinois Team Challenge at Bel-Air Bowl in Belleville.

The Redbirds bowlers are competing under the direction of a new head coach. Dave Meyer has replaced longtime Alton coach Jeff Woszczynski, who stepped down following last season.

The Alton girls have a conference record of 3-2. Losses have been to Collinsville and O’Fallon, with wins over Belleville East,, Granite City and Edwardsville.

The Redbirds boys team is also 3-2 in conference action, with losses to Collinsville and East and victories voer Granite CIty, Edwardsville and O’Fallom.

In nonconference action, the AHS boys and girls have defeated Southwestern and Taylorville.

Tuesday, the Alton boys had a pin total of 2,770 to Granite City’s 2,430 and the AHS girls had a 2,672-4,866 edge over the Warriors.

In Tuesday’s win over Granite City, Ashley Heistand led the Alton girls with a 608 series with game scores of 179, 238 and 193. Addison Beys added a 556 on scores of 237, 138 and 180.

Alex Bergin posted a 511 series on scores of 147, 138 and 180 and teammate Claire Gorman added a 510 series for the Redbirds with a 510 series on scores of 213, 163 and 134.

In boys action Tuesday, Derek Henderson paced Alton with a 665 series. he had games of 256, 192 and 217. Trevor Vallow was right behind with a 597 series with scored of 232, 192 and 193.

At Saturday’s Team Challenge in Belleville, Alton’s girls team finished second out of eight teams entered, while the boys finished seventh. Overall, Alton finished fourth in the combined standings with 11,503 pins.

“Overall the two teams had a good showing,” Meyer said. “The one item that both boys and girls teams need to find, and find it soon, is the strive to continue through the end of the day.

“One bad frame, one bad game as an athlete – they have to find inside of them to want to improve after a mistake.”

In the team challenge format, each team bowled three games in the morning and then were put into bracket pool play for three games. After competition in each bracket of Gold and Silver divisions, winners were determined in boys and girls competition. The combined scores of boys and girls were used to determine the overall champion.

Belleville East won the combined team title with 11,923 pins, followed by Triad 11,770; Herrin, 11, 765; Alton 11,503 and Freeburg 11,308, rounding out the top five.

Individually in boys competition, Alton’s Henderson finished sixth overall with a 1,351 total and a 225.17 average. Teammate Tyler Stevenson was 20th overall with a 1,271 total and a 2111.83 average. Triad’s Gavin Pisetta was the boys champion with a 1,470 total and a 245.00 average.

In girls competition, Paige Snyders of Alton was seventh with a 1,206 total and 195 average, Heistand was ninth with a 1,154 total and 192.33 average, Elizabeth Hanke was 11th with a 1,137 total and 189.5 average, Bergin was 19th with a 1,111 total and 185.17 average and Beys had a four-game total of 796 and a 199 average.

The Alton teams will next be in action Thursday against Belleville East at Bel-Air Bowl.

Report results by email to: telegraphsports@hotmail.com