The Walsh University men’s bowling team took first place in a field of five teams during the American Heartland Bowling Conference event recently at Wayne Webb’s Columbus Bowl in Columbua.
Jordan Norris was the tourney MVP after shooting a school record for a five-game set with games of 268, 237, 214, 275 and 278.
Ryan Hanzak also finished fifth overall with games of 193, 192, 215, 208 and 213, and Ryan Wilson was sixth with 196, 202, 186, 180 and 234.
JT Jackson also contributed, coming off the bench for games of 206, 257, 210 and 207.
Earlier, the Walsh men finished second out of 16 teams and the women were fourth of 14 teams during the Ohio Bowling Conference No. 3 event at the Columbus Square Bowling Palace.
Hanzak led the men with 1,056 total pinfall for five games to finish third overall individually, and Norris finished 10th with 1,015.
Northwestern Ohio took the team title with 7,381, followed by Walsh with 7,164.
In the women’s division, Ohio State took the title with 6,462, followed by St. Vincent with 6,401. Walsh finished with 6,338.
Alicia Yacono led the Cavaliers with an average of 193 to finish fifth overall individually.
The Walsh JV women also topped the Tier II division with 4,176 total pinfall as Kendall Schaar and Alexis Edwards both made the top five individually.
OTHER COLLEGE ACTION
The Tennessee Southern women and Pikeville men collected wins at the NAIA Louisville Invitational.
The tournament featured 12 varsity programs in both the women’s and men’s division in Louisville, Ky. Qualifying consisted of five traditional games and 16 Baker games, and all teams were seeded into a bracket based on total pinfall.
The bracket was divided into three sub-brackets based on seeding (1-4, 5-8 and 9-12), and only the top four teams had the opportunity to win the event. The bracket consisted of two rounds.
In the women’s division, Pikeville paced qualifying with a 7,767 total to earn the top seed for the bracket. Tennessee Southern was second with 7,669 and St. Francis-Illinois finished third with 7,657. Baker claimed the last spot in the top bracket with a 7,445 total, finishing ahead of Grand View by 26 pins for the fourth position.
Pikeville bested Baker in the opening round of the bracket to advance to the finals while Tennessee Southern moved on with a win over St. Francis-Illinois.
Tennessee Southern was able to get the job done in the title match against Pikeville, giving the Firehawks their third consecutive win in November. Tennessee Southern also finished at the top of the leaderboard at the Bowlero Southern Collegiate Classic and Brandon Burns Memorial.
St. Francis-Illinois wrapped the weekend with a win over Baker to finish in third place.
Lindsay Brown of Tennessee Southern recorded the individual win at the Louisville Invitational and collected her third top-three finish of the season. Brown rolled bookend 235 games on the way to posting a 1,070 total (214 average) to lead the field.
Pikeville’s Nicole Gilbert was the only other student-athlete to average over 200 for five games in the women’s division, taking second with 1,013. Baker’s Caitlin Lucas (998), St. Francis-Illinois’ Stephanie Gasca (995) and Pikeville’s Kristina Catoe (994) also finished in the top five.
In the men’s division, Pikeville edged Tennessee Southern by 16 pins for the lead during qualifying. The Bears finished with 8,275, and the Firehawks posted 8,259.
St. Francis-Illinois was next in qualifying with 8,144. Missouri Baptist grabbed the final spot in the top four with a 7,885 total, 24 pins ahead of Baker (7,861).
In the opening round of the bracket, Pikeville and Tennessee Southern recorded wins over Missouri Baptist and St. Francis-Illinois, respectively, to earn spots in the championship round.
Pikeville walked away from the title tilt with the victory over Tennessee Southern, giving the Bears their second consecutive win after taking the top spot at the Brandon Burns Memorial.
Missouri Baptist finished in third place by defeating St. Francis-Illinois in the final round.
Pikeville’s Bryce Oliver continued his dominant season in Louisville, claiming his fourth individual victory in six events with a 1,117 total (223.4 average). After starting with games of 195 and 198, Oliver finished with 228, 238 and 258.
Baker’s Zachery Brehm was second with 1,083, and Blaine Arms of Tennessee Southern finished third with 1,075. Midway’s Caleb Marshall and Tennessee Southern’s Tyler Betz rounded out the all-tournament team with scores of 1,061 and 1,041, respectively.
* At the Bowling Green State Falcon Classic in Sandusky, Ohio, the Notre Dame-Ohio men and Indiana Tech women recorded wins.