By GENE J. KANAK
USBC Communications
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Many of the nation’s top collegiate bowlers and teams are in Louisville, Kentucky, this week to compete in the 2024 Intercollegiate Team Championships and Intercollegiate Singles Championships.
The journey to take home the top team and individual titles of the 2023-2024 United States Bowling Congress Collegiate season begins tonight at 6 p.m. at Kingpin Lanes with the official practice session for the 24 male and 24 female qualifiers for the ISC.
The week will wrap up on Saturday with four taped televised finals, which will air on CBS Sports Network on four consecutive Tuesdays in April and May, all at 7 p.m.
The ISC women’s finals will air April 23, followed by the ISC men’s finals on April 30, the ITC women’s title match May 7 and the ITC men’s final May 14.
All qualifying and match-play rounds at the ISC and ITC will be streamed live on BowlTV.com.
Competition at the ISC kicks off Tuesday at 9 a.m. with a six-game qualifying block to determine seeding for the single-elimination bracket. The top eight qualifiers in both the men’s and women’s divisions will receive first-round byes with the first three rounds of match play featuring a three-game total-pinfall format to determine which player advances.
The final four players in each division after three rounds will advance to the semifinals and finals on CBS Sports Network with one-game matches determining the 2024 singles champions.
Fans in Louisville are guaranteed to see two new victors crowned this year as neither 2023 singles titlists – AJ Wolstenholme of Webber International (Men) or Paige Wagner of Wichita State (Women) – was able to advance to this year’s ISC national finals.
Once the singles finalists have been determined on Wednesday morning, attention will shift to the 50th edition of the team competition, which kicks off at noon Eastern on Wednesday with the first of two ITC practice sessions.
Qualifying will consist of 24 Baker games to determine seeding for the double-elimination match-play bracket. All matches leading up to the title match will be contested in a best-of-seven Baker format.
CBS Sports Network’s coverage of the championship round will feature a best-of-five Baker final in each division.
The Wichita State men will have the opportunity to defend their ITC title from the 2023 event in Las Vegas; however, a new champion will emerge on the women’s side as 2023 champion McKendree was unable to make it back to the national finals.
Teams and individuals qualified for the ITC and ISC through four sectional qualifiers held in March. The sectionals were contested in Addison, Illinois; Allen Park, Michigan; Fort Worth, Texas; and Smyrna, Tennessee.
On the women’s side, a total of eight student-athletes advanced to the ISC from Addison, six from Allen Park and five each from Fort Worth and Smyrna. The men’s division advanced eight ISC finalists from Addison, six from Fort Worth and five each from Allen Park and Smyrna.
Teams qualifying for the ITC had to finish in the top four of their sectionals based on 64-game Baker pinfall totals.
The Muskingum men and Jacksonville State and Oklahoma Christian women all managed to accomplish that feat for the first time in 2024. As such, all three programs will be making their ITC national finals debuts this week in Louisville.
JACKSONVILLE STATE TOPS NCAA; YSU IS THIRD
Jacksonville State (Ala.) defeated Arkansas State in a best-of-seven match that went the distance to win the NCAA Division I women’s bowling championship on Saturday. And the Gamecocks did it in the program’s first season.
“We knew years ago that we wanted to give our girls a Division I experience,” JSU coach Shannon O’Keefe told AL.com. “The entire administration just embraced us and believed in us from the very beginning. The overwhelming amount of support that we are getting, not only at the university but in the community, it means something. To be able to bring it home to little small-town Jacksonville that we have fallen in love with so much, it is just incredible to be able to do that.”
Five games into the championship match, the Gamecocks were on the brink of elimination. But Jacksonville State rallied to bowl a 237 in Game 6 and a 255 in Game 7 to win the national championship at Thunderbowl Lanes in Allen Park, Michigan.
“I feel like we’re like a broken record because we talk about it all the time,” O’Keefe said, “but to be patient, dig your heels in and just execute has really been our motto all year. To watch our girls do what they did tonight was just awesome. To bowl a 250 to win the national championship is pretty sweet.”
Although a first-year program, Jacksonville State didn’t lack experience. The roster featured seven transfers, each with at least one national championship, and two newcomers.
Team members include Isabel Allen, Dannielle Henderson, Rebecca Hagerman, Keyla Covarrubias, Crystal Elliott, Kayla Smith, Anna Warkel, Maranda Pattison and Olivia Fehlner. Next season, Triway High School’s Emma Yoder will join the
O’Keefe had guided McKendree to the national championship in 2017 and 2022.
Arkansas State finished as the national runner-up for the third time in four years. The Red Wolves lost to Nebraska in 2021 and to Vanderbilt in 2023.
The national championship is the first for Jacksonville State since the Gamecocks won the NCAA Division II football crown in 1992.
Youngstown State finished third overall ion their best finish in program history. This was YSU’s second trip to the Final Four in the last four seasons, and it advanced to the championship round Saturday at the event for the first time.
The champions of the Lansing Regional last week, Youngstown State went 1-2 at the Final Four this weekend. YSU, the third overall seed, dropped its opening match 2-0 on Friday to No. 2 Arkansas State, but the Penguins fought off elimination on Friday evening by beating Sam Houston 2-1.
That set up a rematch with Arkansas State on Saturday morning, which the Red Wolves won 2-0.
Youngstown State finished the season with an overall record of 80-36, 10 top-four finishes at tournaments, a horde of individual awards by student-athletes, and a National Coach of the Year y.
Arkansas State got off to a tough start on Saturday morning, and Youngstown State started strongly to build a lead of nearly 70 pins in the traditional point.
The match flipped as the Red Wolves started stringing strikes together in the sixth frame, and four Penguins opened in the eighth frame. Arkansas State increased the margin once the round was already decided and won the point 964-851.
Madison Doseck led the Penguins with a 211 game from the leadoff spot in the lineup, and Jade Cote had the second-highest score with a 180 in the anchor position. The Red Wolves had a 93-pin advantage from the second slot.
Arkansas State then started the Baker pinfall round with games of 236 and 268 to take an 81-pin lead, and the Red Wolves added 56 to the lead in game three. Youngstown State fired a 243 in game two, and it added games of 205 and 212 to finish the tournament by breaking 1,000 for the set. Arkansas State won the point 1,112-1,002.
Perry High School graduate Hannah Miller threw the final shot of the event for YSU, getting a strike on the ball.
The event was the final one for fifth-year senior Megan Grams, who finished her career with 368 victories, four NCAA Tournament appearances, and two trips to the Final Four. Grams is the lone member of the program who is out of eligibility for the 2024-25 season.