INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - After recording a second and third place finish in their last two outings, the Ashford University women's bowling team competed well in its largest and final event of the regular season. The Saints visited Western Bowl in Indianapolis on Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 18-19, where the team finished 15th overall in the 50 squad field.
The event consisted of nine team-games broken up over two days of action. The top eight team scores were then put into a bracket style knockout round to determine the champion.
AU recorded a nine-game total pinfall of 7964 to finish just behind Midwest Collegiate Conference-foe Viterbo and in front of schools such as Purdue University (20th, 7739), Fresno State University (21st, 7718) and Florida State University (22nd, 7702).
DeKalb, Ill. freshman Brandi Underwood was the best Ashford finisher. The first-year player took 39th among all individuals after marking in 78% of the frames she rolled en route to a total score of 1654 (183.78 average).
Underwood was joined in the top-50 individually by teammate Camryn Simmons's score of 1614 (179.33 average). Simmons, a sophomore, hit 82% of her one-pin spare chances for the weekend and notched a 40% strike percentage.
Freshman Katelyn Tharp knocked over 1575 pins (175 average) throughout the nine games to finish 64th overall while Tricia Zimmerman competed in seven games to register a score of 1331 (190.14 average).
Samantha Green (five games; 166.80 average), Morgan Kobitka (four games; 162.25 average) and Melissa Kremer (two games; 153.50 average) also competed during the weekend for the Saints.
The sixth-seeded Jets of Newman University (Kan.) took down the top three seeded squads on their way to capturing the event championship. Newman defeated third-seeded Webber International in the tournament quarterfinals before knocking off the two-seed McKendree and top-seed Wichita State.
Wichita State bowler Jazreel Tan won medalist honors after recording a nine-game total pinfall of 1866 (207.33 average).
On Wednesday, the USBC announced that the Saints, ranked #24 in the country, will be heading to Euless, Texas for their sectional tournament. The event is scheduled to be held March 10-11.
