William Penn Ends Regular Season with 17th-Place Effort at Tier 1 Event
William Penn University Athletics
by Wade Steinlage
Indianapolis, Ind.–The Statesmen women’s bowling team had an excellent showing on the second day of competition as it finished in the top 20 at the Hoosier Classic Saturday and Sunday.
WPU placed 17th out of 66 teams at the Tier 1 event with 8,142 pins in six regular games and 15 Baker games. Wichita State (Kan.) won qualifying with 9,332 pins, but was upset by #5 seed Grand View in the semifinals of bracket play. Newman (Kan.) ended up with the bracket crown by defeating GVU 3-1 in the finals.
The navy and gold concluded Saturday’s regular action in 27th, but leap-frogged 10 programs during Sunday’s Bakers.
Mattie Brandos of Robert Morris (Ill.) was the top individual (410 bowlers) with a 212.0 average, while Amber Ovel (Jr., Waterloo, Iowa, Business Management) guided William Penn at 196.0. Ovel’s high game of 258 was the highest for any Statesmen all season.
Bailey Palmer (So., Ottumwa, Iowa, Undecided) was next at 184.7, while Audra Farley (Sr., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Education), at 178.2, and Kayla Gifford (So., Camanche, Iowa, Biology), at 165.2, also started all six games.
Abbey Fangman (Fr., Waterloo, Iowa, Elementary Education) averaged 169.3 pins in four games, while Nicole Craft (So., Wakefield, Neb., Physical Education) posted a 151.5-pin average in two rounds.
By entering the tournament at #28 in collegebowling.com’s ranking and likely only improving its positioning with this weekend’s result, William Penn is a lock for the postseason. The Statesmen will now wait to learn where they will travel for the USBC Team Sectionals on March 10-11. The USBC Singles Sectionals will be held on March 9 at the same venue.
