In their first-ever visit to the Intercollegiate Team Championships, the Saint Vincent men's bowling team put in an impressive performance, finishing 7th among 18 teams in the Dayton, Ohio Sectional.
SVC earned the trip to the national tournament by finishing 71st in the nation in points, with the top 80 receiving invitations. The non-scholarship Bearcat team was the 16th seed among 18 teams in the Dayton event, which featured mostly scholarship programs.
The weekend format was 64 Baker team games over two days, broken into 16 four-game blocks, with 16 games in each of four sessions.
After the first four-game block of the weekend, the Bearcats found themselves in last place, averaging just 155.
The team recovered quickly, averaging 199 over the next four games and starting its climb up the standings. After a 731 block (182.7 average) in block three, SVC closed out the morning session with an 802 series, an average of 200.5.
Anthony Strickland led the team in the morning session with a per-frame average of 19.64, a game equivalent of 196.4.
Brandon Dunmire (19.54) and
Josh Marks (19.34) rounded out the top three, helping the team to move to 11th place after the first quarter of the weekend.
The afternoon session saw the team shoot four-game totals of 708, 715, 805 and 763, an average of 186.9. The highlight was the final game of the third block, as the team set a school record with a team game of 270.
Michael Fekete led the way with a 20.96 per frame average, followed by Marks (20.09), Dunmire (18.68) and
Nathan Horton (18.58). The team effort lifted the Bearcats to 10th place at the end of day one, with a 32-game average of 186.
SVC started day two with consistent but low scores, shooting 170-172-175-172 in the opening block. It took until the eighth game of the day for the team to break the 200 mark (211), and SVC managed just two other games above the 200 mark in the 16-game block.
Eddie Zuzak's 21.26 per-frame average paced the team, while Dunmire finished at 18.81, and
Garrett Contee averaged 18.12. As a team, SVC slid to 11th place entering the final 16 games of the tournament.
The final block opened with a team game of 198, followed by 204, 171 and 245 games to wrap up the opening block. The momentum carried over into the second block, with the Bearcats starting with games of 258 and 234. After a 176 in the third game, SVC finished with a 211, for a four-game block of 879, an average of 219.7, moving the team back into the 10th position.
The Bearcats weren't quite as strong in the third block, but managed games of 191, 225, 180 and 180. Other teams in the top-10 didn't fare as well, as the Bearcats jumped to 8th entering the final four games of the weekend.
After a 159 in game one cost the team one position, the Bearcats started the second game with a spare, which was followed by 8 consecutive strikes, en route to a 269 game, moving the team back into 9th place.
Zuzak led off the next game with a shot that left a 7-pin, which he covered for the spare. Strickland, Dunmire, Marks and Fekete followed with strikes in frames 2-5. Zuzak struck in frame six, followed again by strikes from Strickland, Dunmire and Marks. Fekete then stepped up in the 10th and carried strikes on all three shots, completing a new school record Baker 290 game for the Bearcats. The team ended the day with a 178 game, for a tournament best four-game total of 896, enabling the final jump to 7th place.
Marks led the way in the final 16-game block, averaging 22.06, followed by Fekete (21.87), Zuzak (20.63), Strickland (20.43) and Dunmire (19.87).
Over the final 16 games, Saint Vincent averaged 210, second only to national powerhouse McKendree State (3373-3369). The 290 was the highest game in the entire tournament, which consisted of more than 2000 games combined from men's and women's teams.
The team's 7th place finish was just three spots shy of a trip to the National finals. The Bearcats missed by just 257 pins, four pins per game over the 64 games. The team finished day two with an average of 194.8. For the weekend, Saint Vincent averaged 190.3.
Saint Vincent will wrap up its season on Saturday, March 26 in the Ohio Bowling Conference Championship. The Bearcats are the #3 seed in the conference finals.
