Statesmen Control Home Lanes for Heart Title
Oskaloosa–The William Penn men’s bowling team took advantage of home cooking as it rolled, figuratively and literally, to a league crown at the Heart of America Athletic Conference Championship last Saturday and Sunday.
The Statesmen were first out of seven teams in qualifying with 4,685 pins in 24 Baker games. Baker was the next-closest program with 4,623 pins.
WPU, playing at its home venue of Statesmen Lanes, then went to work in match play as the #1 seed. Following an opening-round bye, the navy and gold dropped #5 seed Grand View 3-1 (174-170, 188-221, 162-150, 196-180).
The squad was then pushed to the limit by #3 seed Culver-Stockton, but came away with a 3-2 victory. After falling behind 2-1, the Statesmen cleared 200 in its final two games to advance to the championship round. Game scores were 182-186, 165-148, 184-189, 221-186, 224-156.
The Statesmen then awaited a champion to emerge from the consolation bracket and that ended up being #4 seed Peru State. WPU appeared to have the match and the trophy in the bag up 3-1, but was again extended to the brink before finally holding off the Bobcats 4-3. Scores from the match were 196-171, 156-180, 252-152, 220-200, 168-173, 184-225, 200-173.
The league title is the fourth in program history (second in the Heart) and the first since 2021. It also locks up an automatic bid to the NAIA National Championship in Sterling Heights, Mich. from March 23-25. The nationals berth is William Penn’s fifth all-time (all in a row).
“The guys showed us the team we believed they were from the start of the season,” Head Coach Cameron Foster said. “They battled hard and never got down when they had bad games, but instead picked themselves to go get the wins. I am truly proud of them and all the work they have put in. We are excited to be heading back to NAIA Nationals and will look to use this momentum to make our run at also making USBC Nationals in a couple weeks as well.”
Next Up: William Penn travels to Dallas, Texas from March 10-12 to compete at USBC Sectionals.
