William Penn Off to Illinois for Sectionals
Oskaloosa–The Statesmen bowling teams will hit up a familiar venue as they again qualified for the USBC Intercollegiate Team Sectionals.
The women and men, ranked #16 and #21 respectively in the USBC rankings (https://collegebowling.bowl.com/rankings), will head east to Addison, Ill. on March 12-13 for the event at Stardust Bowl. The tournament is a Baker format consisting of 64 total games–32 each day.
The other sectional tournaments will be held at Smyrna, Tenn., Dayton, Ohio, and Dallas, Texas.
The top four teams from each of the four sectionals advance to the Intercollegiate Team Championships, which would be a return trip for the Statesmen as it will be held on April 20-23 at Stardust Bowl in Addison, Ill.
The four sites will also host the Intercollegiate Singles Sectionals on March 11 with individuals bowling six games. The top 24 men and the top 24 women–top four from each sectional plus eight additional bowlers based on size of field at each location–advance to the National Singles Championship that begins on April 18.
The women remain perfect in the program’s history for qualifying for sectionals (13-for-13), while the men are making their 12th trip in 13 campaigns. The men are attempting to qualify for nationals for the sixth time (fifth in a row; no tournament in 2020–COVID), while the women are looking for their fourth appearance (first since 2019).
On the men’s side, #2 St. Ambrose will top the Addison field, while #1 Wichita State (Kan.) is going to Dallas. Third-ranked SCAD Savannah (Ga.) tops the Smyrna grouping, while #5 Tennessee Southern is making the trek to Dayton.
Fellow top-10 programs #7 Calumet-St. Joseph (Ind.) and #10 Mount Mercy are also favorites in the Addison field. According to the rankings, William Penn is the sixth-highest seed in the field.
The Addison sectional includes 22 teams. In addition to WPU and the two aforementioned top-10 squads, the rest of the men’s field includes (alphabetically):
#49 Adrian (Mich.)
#40 Bowling Green State (Ky.)
#52 Huntington (Ohio)
#45 Judson (Ill.)
#20 Lawrence Tech (Mich.)
#60 Lourdes (Ohio)
#28 Marian (Wis.)
#32 Northwestern Ohio
#50 Purdue (Ind.)
#70 Rochester (Mich.)
#46 Rock Valley CC (Ill.)
#69 Thomas More (Ky.)
#68 Viterbo (Wis.)
#55 Waldorf
#75 Wisconsin-La Crosse
#78 Wisconsin-Milwaukee
#81 Wisconsin-Oshkosh
#11 Wisconsin-Whitewater
Rok Kostric (Grad., Koper, Slovenia, Master’s of Sports Management) enters the postseason as William Penn’s top male bowler with a 203.1 average.
On the women’s side, Mount Mercy is #2 overall nationally and first in the Addison field. #1 Wichita State is the best team in Dallas, while #3 St. Francis (Ill.) will lead the Dayton group and #4 Pikeville (Ky.) will be Smyrna’s best crew.
Other top-10 teams in Addison include #5 Lawrence Tech (Mich.) and #9 St. Ambrose. The Statesmen are rated fourth in the field.
Other schools that are in the 18-team event include (alphabetically):
#34 Adrian (Mich.)
#47 Alma (Mich.)
#25 Calumet-St. Joseph (Ind.)
#54 Clarke
#55 Duquesne (Pa.)
#49 Huntington (Ohio)
#41 Judson (Ill.)
#40 Lewis (Ill.)
#31 Louisiana Tech
#38 Lourdes (Ohio)
#24 Marian (Wis.)
#49 Rock Valley CC (Ill.)
#65 Viterbo (Wis.)
#62 Wisconsin-Whitewater
Gabi Evans (Jr., West Liberty, Iowa, Psychology and Sociology) headlines the women’s squad with a 193.9 average.
Sectional assignments are based on Team Ranking System (TRS) points. Fields are determined by taking geographic distance, economics, and field size into consideration. To sort teams evenly throughout each sectional, the USBC attempts to place no more than two of the top eight schools and no more than four of the top 16 schools in a sectional based on final TRS totals.
