BOWLING

The HU bowling teams opened their season over the weekend at the 51st Midwest Collegiate Championships where the women took 20th and the men finished 24th. As one of the longest running collegiate tournaments in the country, the weekend format included six team games on Saturday and 16 Baker games on Sunday.

“Overall, we were happy with the team this weekend,” said Coach Mike Shockey. “The finish positions of each team were lower than expected, but we did have a lot of really good things happen.

“The communication, teamwork, and lane play were all better than expected. We are in a great position moving forward with this season.”

Competing in a field of 35 teams, the Forester women posted a total score of 8,151 behind a strong performance by Amber Elliott on Saturday. The senior finished second overall out of 273 bowlers with a six-game pin count of 1,307 (217.8/game average) to earn a spot on the All-Tournament Team.

“The weekend for the ladies was a mix of good things,” noted Shockey. “Saturday the team could throw strikes but missed a few too many spares and got lost in the transition for a game and half. Sunday was a different story we could make spares and made adjustments pretty well, but we just could not throw enough strikes.”

The Huntington men’s 24th place finish out of 49 teams saw them rack up a total score of 8,911. Leading the charge was freshman Jordan Malott. In his collegiate debut, the Carroll High School product knocked down 1,323 pins for six games (220.5/game average) to place 26th out of 416 bowlers.

“Saturday was a real struggle for the guys,” said Shockey. “It was difficult to find consistency with the line-up to keep up with the high scoring conditions. Sunday was better with the consistency, but we fell short of rolling the scores needed to move up the standings sheet.”

Shockey and crew are back in action this weekend for Crossroads League Tournaments #1 and #2, both in Jackson, Mich.