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Hu women bowlers miss nationals by two spots

The Huntington University women’s bowling team made a run for one of four advancing spots to the national finals, but fell just short in the last two Baker games to finish sixth out of 16 teams at the USBC Intercollegiate Team Sectional, held in Smyrna, TN, from Thursday, March 12, to Sunday, March 15.

The HU team of Rachel Vogler, Shelby New, Ayla Yeiter, Emerald Leong, Emily O’Leary and Brooke Ewing spent all weekend vying for a bid to nationals at the Smyrna Bowling Center and after 60 Baker games, Coach Jim Bischoff’s clan was one of four teams competing for the final two spots. The first two spots were set as McKendree and Lindenwood ran away from the rest of the competition.

After two days and 56 Baker games, Huntington, which had moved into a tie for fourth place earlier Sunday afternoon, had dropped 135 pins behind Emmanuel, which seemed an insurmountable gap. But doing what they had done all weekend, the Foresters pressed on to roll a four-game set of 823 with games of 212-157-278-176 to move into fifth place, only five pins behind second-ranked Pikeville.

With four Baker games remaining, the tournament came down to four teams – Emmanuel, Pikeville, Marian and HU. With Pikeville and Emmanuel on the same pair and HU and Marian on the same pair, Huntington rolled 189-201 to climb into fourth after the first two games. After switching lanes, though, Huntington’s hopes were dashed as they posted scores of 129-165, dropping them into sixth with a total of 12,139, 116 pins from the cut.

HU was in 10th after the first eight games, rolling four-game blocks of 706-711. They finished Saturday morning with 824-758 to move up to seventh. On Saturday afternoon, Huntington rolled blocks of 784-815-746-718 to wrap up the day still holding their No. 7 spot.

On Sunday, the Foresters began moving up the standings by rolling 766-777-782 before rolling 738 to slide into fifth after 48 games, just 25 pins out of fourth. In the next eight games, the ladies went 790-715 to set up the dramatic finish. HU had three of the highest five games in the tournament with games of 278, 256 and 255.

In individual play, New and Yeiter finished in the top 15 and came up just short of earning a spot to nationals. The top four individuals in each sectional advance to the national finals in Wichita, KS, in April.

Four Foresters competed individually on Friday with New making a run right out of the gate by rolling 211-189-182-248-214 her first five games. She was within one pin of the top four going into her sixth and final game but struggled, rolling a 169 for a total of 1,213 (202.1 average) which landed her a 10th place finish out of 138 bowlers. She finished just 38 pins behind the 4th place finisher.

Yeiter also remained in the hunt for one of the top four spots. She rolled games of 186-235-175-192-200-205 for a six-game total of 1,193, 198.8 average, which placed her 15th.

Other Foresters competing in singles were Vogler, 80th, 171 average, and Ewing,120th, 159.8 average.