McPherson, Kansas – The McPherson College Women’s Bowling team competed in the Jayhawk Collegiate Challenge this past weekend in Royal Crest Lanes. Saturday consisted of 5 traditional team games followed by 16 baker games on Sunday. The top 8 varsity teams and top 4 JV teams based on the two-day combined pinfall advanced to a single elimination match play bracket.
Saturday:
Varsity
- The varsity put together team games of 880, 920, 899, 1015, and 992 for a day one total of 4706, which was good for 1st place by 51 pins.
- Sophomore, Kacee Rhody, led the team individually with a 5-game total of 998, good for 6th place.
- Junior, Miranda Hunt, and Senior, Veronyca West also put together solid performances for the Bulldogs. Hunt averaged 197.75 and West averaged 191.75, both bowling 4 games each.
JV
- The JV team had team game scores of 902, 771, 805, 839, and 895 for a day one total of 4212, good for 3rd place in the JV division.
- Junior, Marissa Bogholtz, led the JV with a 5-game total of 909, good for 25th place.
- Junior, Alyssa, Porcelli, also put together a solid performance with a 3-game total of 630, which was a team high average of 210 for the weekend.
Sunday:
Varsity
- The Bulldogs put together a record-breaking performance on Sunday in the baker game portion of qualifying with a 16-game total of 3242 for an average of 202.63. Both the 16-game pinfall and average are new records for the Bulldog program.
- The outstanding Sunday performance saw the Bulldogs lead grow from 51 pins entering the day, to 315 pins by the end of qualifying.
- The Bulldogs finished qualifying with a two-day total pinfall of 7948, an average of 193.85 per game, good for 1st place.
- MC entered match play as the #1 seed and would face #8 seed Hastings in the opening round. Unfortunately, the Bulldogs would fall 3 games to 1 to the Broncos to be eliminated from match play.
JV
- The Bulldogs JV team put together a 16-game total of 2742 on Sunday, bringing their two-day total pinfall to 6954, which was good for the #2 seed going into match play.
- MC swept Avila JV 3 games to 0 in the semi-final round setting up a championship match against host team, Baker JV.
- The championship match was a back-and-forth thriller. The Bulldogs would prevail in the 5th and final game 194-180 to bring home the JV division championship!
“What a fantastic weekend for the entire Bulldog bowling program!” says head coach Mitchell Whitehead. “The fight the varsity showed on day one followed by the performance they put together on Sunday was fun to watch. The JV team battled all weekend long and stepped up when it mattered most in match play. Their performance in pressure situations seemed to get better, and it was great to see their hard work rewarded with a win. I’m super proud of every single player in our program for taking what we learned at Midstates and applying it to this weekend. This was a huge step forward for our program, and we look forward to carrying the momentum into the back half of the fall season.”
The Bulldogs have a couple of weeks off before the JV has an away match against Southern Nazarene University in Oklahoma City on November 11th, and the varsity heads to Rockford, Illinois for the Leatherneck Classic November 14th-15th.
