Statesmen End Year Fourth at NAIA Invite
William Penn University Athletics
Indianapolis, Ind.–The William Penn men’s bowling team produced one more great showing before closing the book on its season as it competed at the NAIA Invitational over the weekend.
William Penn tallied 4,807 pins in 24 Baker games to place fourth after qualifying. Robert Morris (Ill.) claimed the top seed for the bracket tournament with 5,215 pins.
The Statesmen struggled through the first half of qualifying, but rebounded to post nine of their ten 200 games in the second 12 games.
As the #4 seed, the squad earned an opening-round bye and then faced fellow Midwest Collegiate Conference foe Grand View. The navy and gold defeated the 13th-seeded Vikings 3-1 before being knocked out of the championship bracket by #5 Calumet-St. Joseph (Ind.) 3-0.
The Statesmen remained alive with a 3-1 win over #11 Martin Methodist (Tenn.) and a 3-2 victory against #9 St. Ambrose. It then needed a roll-off to slip into the consolation semifinals.
William Penn tied #6 Missouri Baptist 2.5-2.5, but crushed its opposition in the roll-off, 47-15.
The comeback trail ended in the semis, though, with a 3-0 loss to Midland (Neb.). #2 Webber International went a perfect 5-0 for the title, shutting down Calumet-St. Joseph 3-0 in the final.
The tournament is called an invitational instead of a championship because the NAIA does not yet sponsor bowling as an intercollegiate sport. If 50 or more NAIA member institutions designate bowling as a varsity sport, then bowling will be eligible for championship sport status and an NAIA national championship.
Postseason awards were announced over the weekend with junior Sean Rangel (Omaha, Neb., Bellevue East HS) topping the list by being named an NAIA First-Team All-American. He was a second-team pick a year ago.
The NAIA’s coaches also handed out academic recognition to Drew Balta (So., Walford, Cedar Rapids Prairie HS), Alex Hoskins (Fr., Pocatello, Idaho, Century HS), and Piet Schaeffer (So., Livingston, England, The James Young HS).
The accolades join the same awards from the National Collegiate Bowling Coaches Association, given out last month at the USBC Sectionals.
To be selected to the academic teams, a bowler must have a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.5 based on a 4.0 scale.
