Joliet Junior College bowler Madi Lave repeats as national champion

The Herald-News area has seen plenty of success in girls bowling at the high school level the past few years. State titles from Lockport and Joliet West, high placements from bowlers at Minooka and Plainfield Central, it’s been a great sight to see at the prep level.

What not everyone might now, though, is there’s also been growth at the collegiate level. Though calling back-to-back national championships “growth” is underselling it a little bit.

Madi Lave, a Lockport native and graduate of Lockport Township High School, just wrapped up her second and final season of college bowling at Joliet Junior College. And for the second straight year she rolled her way to a national champion at the NJCAA level.

“It feels surreal that I was able to push through and claim the title a second time,” Lave said. “A lot of my coaches put forth their best effort to help me get to where I am. Practicing my skills more and more helped me get better.”

Lave won the national title earlier this month at Airport Lanes in Cheektowaga, N.Y., with a final score of 653. This came a year after she began her career with the Wolves by winning the national championship in singles.

It wasn’t just that she won back-to-back titles, though. It was how she won them. Lave is the first back-to-back singles national champion at the NJCAA level since the 1990s, before she was even born. She’s only the third bowler in NJCAA history to repeat as a national champion.

“I don’t think it’s really settled in with me (that I did that),” she said. “It’s really hard to think about that it’s been so long since it was done. It’s definitely an honor to be the one to achieve that.”

Lave wasn’t the only Wolf to have success at nationals either.

Her teammate Abby Miller, also from Lockport, finished in 11th place with a 584 and the team finished in fourth place with a total score of 11,815. This is just the second year of the program’s existence, and the Wolves are already shining at the national level.

It helps when you have a presence like Lave on the roster.

“She is an amazing bowler,” JJC assistant athletic director Rachel Helfrich Tobin said. “She’s a great person, great student and great athlete. To repeat as a sophomore in just the second year of the program means she’s definitely going to leave some big shoes to fill for us.”

Lave started bowling at 8 years old in Saturday morning leagues, continued through middle school and bowled all four years of high school with the Porters. She won back-to-back IHSA state championships with the Porters her junior and senior year.

Now her competitive bowling career has come to an end. While she still plans to bowl with friends, her focus now will be on education. She’s studying to be an ultrasound technician and hopes to continue on with that program at JJC.

She’s excited to see the continued growth of the bowling program from afar, and she has advice to any aspiring national champions who are on their way to the Wolves.

“Go practice and do your thing,” she said. “Enjoy the moments you have when you’re bowling. Those moments with your friends on the team will be some of the best moments you have in your life.”