BOWLING

The Foresters’ bowling season finished this past weekend at the NAIA Invitational Tournament hosted by Plaza Lanes in Highland, Ind. The tournament started on Friday with 24 baker games to determine seeding for the double elimination best-of-five match play portion held on Saturday and Sunday.

“I’m proud of both teams,” said Coach Shockey. “Overall, we are still a young team and the experiences gained this season will invaluable going forward.”

It wasn’t exactly the ending the HU women were hoping for. They finished Friday in a tie for 18th place out of 20 teams with a score of 4,307 for a 179/game average. HU faced #15 Aquinas in the first round of match play on Saturday morning and came out on the short end of a 3-1 decision, 199-173, 178-200, 179-170, 205-196.

The loss moved Huntington into the contender’s bracket to face #10 University of Saint Francis. The match was close until USF got on a hot streak in game four to wrap up the 3-1 win, 173-208, 196-163, 175-173, 219-189, to eliminate HU from the tourney.

“We came into the season with a few simple goals and we surpassed most of those goals,” said Shockey. “The ladies went from a team last year that missed the NAIA tournament to a team the easily qualified and was able to show our potential with a couple runner-up finishes.

“We showed some of our potential at times this season. We have a good recruiting class for next season so the future is bright for the girls. They’re going to be a really tough team next season. We’ll have experienced upperclassmen to blend with a talented sophomore and freshman class.”

The Forester men struggled on Friday but turned it around on Saturday to finish the NAIA Championships with another elite 8 appearance. Friday was a day with ups and downs as they climbed as high as 7th before lunch before falling down to the 19th seed by day’s end. HU finished the day with a total score of 4,499 for a 187/game average.

In match one on Saturday, the men faced 14th seed Kansas Wesleyan and lost a close one, 3-2, with scores of 202-185, 169-170, 236-237, 207-177, 199-157. It send them to the contender’s round where they beat #6 Grand View 3.5-1.5, 203-184, 225-204, 180-180, 154-192, 187-143.

After a short lunch break, HU came back to bowl against #20 Lindsey Wilson College for a second straight win, 3-1, 191-174, 169-194, 180-179, 185-147. Next up was Martin Methodist. The Foresters gutted out a 3-2 win, 169-176, 157-184, 202-184, 193-155, 194-173, which put them into the top eight where they faced #7 Lawrence Tech.

Mentally and emotionally drained after the exciting Martin Methodist match, the Foresters ran out of gas to suffer a 3-1 loss to the Blue Devils, 150-153, 195-123, 188-162, 206-141, and end their run in the tourney.

“This marked the last collegiate tournament for senior Jake Neely,” said Shockey. “Over the course of his career, he has put in the work to go from a JV player to a varsity anchor bowler. We will miss Jake and his contributions next season.

“Looking forward, we will still be a young team next season but we will be an experienced team with all freshmen getting time on varsity this season. The men’s recruiting class is solid and will be ready to compete out of the gate next season.”