Hononegah’s boys bowling squad, and one of the current NIC-10 leaders Charlie Hunt, got off to a very fast start to the season last month, and they’ve just kept right on rolling early on.
Hunt and the team set state and national records during one of their three early-season tournament victories, powered by 300 games from Hunt and teammate Christian Bauer in the first game of the first tourney of the season.
“Everything was all lined up for us that day,” said Hunt, the junior who rolled a 300 game on Nov. 19 during the Guilford High School Invitational at Don Carter Lanes in Rockford. “And since then, we’ve just been saying ‘We know we can even do a lot more. Let’s go.'”
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His 300 game came at the same time as his teammate Bauer, and their other teammate Logan Moore also started off Game 1 by rolling nine strikes. While Hunt and Bauer finished off 300 games, Moore managed a 287. Not a bad way to start things off. It also led to some serious records falling.
“It was just fun to sit back and watch,” Hononegah bowling coach Brad Sommer said. “And they haven’t stopped since.”
State, national records topple
At the Guilford invite, the Hononegah team set the single-game high school state and national record with 1,336 pins. With an average of 267.2 per bowler, that mark broke the old record of 1,323 set by Warren De La Salle (Michigan) in 2008 and equaled by Sachem (New York) in 2015.
Hononegah also set a state record for the highest three-game team series with a 3,738, for an average of 249.2 per bowler, and it set a six-game team record in the state with a series of 7,045, an average of 234.83 per bowler . Hononegah had that previous record of 7,006 sets last year.
“We have all been so confident this season, it’s been crazy,” said Hunt, who set an individual state high school series record with the 867 series, which also ties the national high school record. “If we can do all that so early in the season, than what else can we accomplish this year? Look out.”
Hononegah’s three-game team series of 3,738 (249.2 per bowler average) also topped the state mark of 3,602 set by Minooka in 2019. Hononegah’s six-game team series of 7,045 (234.83 per bowler) also set a new state mark, previously held by the 2021 Hononegah team with a 7,006.
“That’s how you want to start it off, that’s for sure,” said Sommer, who guided Guilford’s bowling team for 21 years (and one state title) before coming over the Hononegah seven years ago. The Hononegah program has skyrocketed ever since. “And this year they just have a very special team chemistry. This group could be very, very good.”
Who’s hot in the NIC-10, as things heat up
The Hononegah boys, which won last year’s Hononegah Indian Invitational, the unofficial state championship, have won three of the five tourneys they have entered so far this season, including the Harlem Invitational last weekend at Forest Hills Lanes. The Harlem boys, however, have claimed the other two tourney titles, showing they will battle until the end.
Hononegah’s Anthony Kiely is the current NIC-10 leader with a 267 average, while Hunt is right behind his other teammate at 265, and Harlem’s Brayland Carpenter is in third at 230 with Bauer in fourth at 227. Belvidere North’s Samuel Moran is right behind them at 224, with Harlem’s Devin Titus right behind him at 223.
Just this past summer, the Harlem girls won their fourth national title in the past five tries and the Huskie boys joined them, winning their first national championship at the US High School Bowling Foundation national bowling tournaments in Louisville, Kentucky.
Now, the Harlem girls are working on building on that, as well as last season when they took second at state (for the third time in a row), with the Hononegah girls taking fourth. But Harlem graduated its top two bowlers, while Hononegah returns leaders Madison (last year’s Rockford Register Star Bowler of the Year), Cassidy Davenport and Emilee and Katelin Mullranin.
Jay Taft is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter at @JayTaft. Sign up for the Rockford High School newsletter at rrstar.com. Jay has covered a wide variety of sports, from the Chicago Bears to youth sports, since the turn of the century at the Register Star, and for over 30 years all together.
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