[Men's Bowling] Men's Bowling finishes eighth at USBC Sectionals
DALLAS, Texas – The Kansas Wesleyan men's bowling team wrapped up the 2018-19 season over the weekend at the United States Bowling Congress (USBC) Intercollegiate Individual and Team Sectionals events held at the USA Bowl.
The Coyotes finished eighth in the team sectional standings and got some strong finishes in the individual qualifier as well.
The eighth place finish is the highest ever for the Coyotes in the event, as they finished 14th in 2017 and 15th in 2018.
"I am proud of our team's finish," KWU coach Todd Zenner said. "We were right in the thick of it throughout the entire team event and we had our best ever finish at this event. It gives us a lot of momentum heading into next year."
In the individual qualifier held on Friday, Brandon Russom (SR/West Jordan, Utah) led the way for the Coyotes with a 13th place finish with a total of 1221 pins. Nathan Mercer (FR/Topeka, Kan.) was 23rd with 1194 pins, Griffin Bryant (SO/Goddard, Kan.) was 28th with 1188 pins, Austin Musselman (SO/Catoosa, Okla.) was 30th with 1185 pins, Gabe Serrano (JR/Newton, Kan.) was 50th with 1149 pins, Austin Wiley (FR/San Antonio, Texas) was 73rd with 1118 pins, John Bredehoeft (JR/Leavenworth, Kan.) was 95th with 1103 pins, Jimmy Fitzgerald (SO/Helotes, Texas) was 104th with 1084 pins, Bryce Stephenson (FR/Garland, Texas) was 122nd with 1048 pins, Ethan Resh (JR/Birdsboro, Pa.) was 131st with 1033 pins, Caleb Demel (FR/Salina, Kan.) was 140th with 1014 pins and Tristan Sowes was 168th with 881 pins.
On Saturday and Sunday, the teams rolled a marathon combined 64 games in four 16-game blocks, two on each day. The Coyotes steadily improved in each block, ranked 15th after the first 16 games, moving to 11th after 32, tenth after 48 and finishing in eighth after 64 games with a final total of 11901 pins.
Wichita State was the Sectional winner with 13050 pins, McKendree (Ill.) was second with 12913, William Penn was the highest finishing NAIA team in third with 12550, followed by Grand Canyon at 12336, Iowa Central CC at 12225, West Texas A&M in sixth at 12044, Midland (Neb.) was seventh with 12019, followed by KWU, Central Missouri with 11850, Morningside with 11797, Baker with 11777, Oklahoma Christian was 12th with 11750, Newman with 11667, Ottawa was 14th with 11666, Louisiana State was 15th with 11639, Nebraska was 16th with 11603, San Jose State was 17th with 11579 and UNLV was 18th with 10989.
The strong finish caps a strong season for the Coyotes with five Top 5 finishes at events during the year. The Coyotes were third in the SWIBC Championships.