ALTON — Senior Eryka Graham will no doubt go down as one of the best in tradition of strong bowlers at Alton HighSchool. She’s been the anchor for the Redbirds girls for three seasons and led them to within striking distance of the Southwestern Conference championship.

Tuesday, they got over the top.

Alton’s 2,961-2,665 victory over rival Belleville West at Bowl Haven gave the Redbirds at least a share of the SWC championship, pending the outcomes of Tuesday’s Collinsville-O’Fallon match (results were unavailable at deadline).

The Redbirds got a strong 1-2-3 punch at the top of their lineup – as well as some earlier help from Belleville East.

“Winning the conference was one of our goals before the season started,” Alton coach Jeff Woszczynski said. “Eryka has been our go-to bowler all year. She did an outstanding job again (Tuesday).”

Graham bowled a 760 series, including a 290 in her third game, to pace the Redbirds.

Teammates Elizabeth Hanke and Ashley Heistand back up Graham with strong series scores as well. Hanke bowled a 639 and Heistand had a 534 series.

“(Heistand and Hanke) give us three consistently strong performances for a three-way punch,” Woszczynski said. “Not very many teams have that.”

Tuesday, the Maroons were led by Izzy DeFosset’s 635 series.

The conference championship is the first for the Alton girls bowlers since 2001 when the Redbirds went on to finish 10th overall at the IHSA state tournament, led by Whitney Cox, who claimed the individual state championship. It was Woszczynski’s first season as head coach at Alton.

“We’ve had a lot of second- and third-place finishes,”Woszczynski said, “but it’s been a while since we were at the top.”

The victory leaves Alton with a 12-2 overall record and a 10-2 conference mark. The Redbirds swept East and split with Collinsville and East during the season, but the Kahoks and Panthers were each swept by East.

An O’Fallon win Tuesday would mean a tie with Alton for the league crown. A Kahoks’ victory would mean that Alton would claim the league title outright.

Either way, it was enough to make Woszczynski sing his team’s praises.

“It sounds more complicated that it really is,” Woszczynski said. “It all boils down to us winning down the stretch when we needed to.

“I’m proud of the girls,” he said. “They did a nice job (against West) and have been pretty consistent all season.”

Graham’s 290 game was preceded by games of 237 and 233 on Tuesday. Hanke had scores of 212, 246 and 181, while Heistand had games of 201, 150 and 183.

Chloe Greenberg contributed a 511 series with games of 157, 180 and 174. Addison Beys had a 270 with two game scores of 143 and 127 and Alex Bergin bowled the third game and had a 247.

“We’ve been fairly consistent all year,” Woszczynski said. “We figured coming into the season that we had a chance to have a pretty good girls team.

“Having a strong punch at the top helps,” he said. “But we’ve gotten consistency up and down the lineup.”

Evidently, Woszczynski and his assistant coaches figured correctly.

Reach Pete Hayes at 463-2500 or Twitter @HayeserPete