FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 26, 2016

CONTACT:
Gordon Vadakin
Phone (316) 978-7655
Fax (316) 978-6056
email - shocker.bowling@wichita.edu
www.wichita.edu/bowling

WICHITA, KAN. – Four days after opening their second semester, the Shocker men and women jumped on a bus and headed to Fairview Heights, Ill. to compete in the McKendree Baker Challenge. The ladies walked away as champions and the men finished second. This was the second win of the semester for the women, as they won the ISBPA/Kegel Midwest Collegiate Classic last weekend.

The format for the McKendree Baker Challenge is unique; aside from post-season play, this is the only tournament the Shox compete in that features all Baker games. Baker games consist of the team combining to bowl one game with bowler one bowling the 1st and 6th frames, bowler two bowling the 2nd and 7th frames, and so forth for the remaining team members. The anchor bowler bowls the 5th and all of the shots in the 10th frame. All teams bowled 24 Baker games on Saturday then 16 on Sunday. The field was then cut to the top eight men’s and top eight women’s team for a best-of-three, single elimination bracket.

Baker games were broken into sets of four games. Over the course of 10, four game sets, the ladies bowled over 800 nine times and averaged 210 during qualifying to earn the number one seed for the bracket.

“We had a pretty good day on Saturday. We made really good shots and played the lanes well. On Sunday, we wanted to make sure we came in with more intensity, especially in match play,” sophomore Hollyann Johansen (Wichita, Kan.) said.

In round one, the ladies bowled Baker University and it was a quick match. A 192-180 win and 246-180 win gave them the match and a spot in the semi-finals.

Lindenwood University was up next and the first game got interesting. The match was full of strikes and senior Dasha Kovalova (Moscow, Russia) had a chance to step up, deliver three strikes and shut Lindenwood out. The two-time Collegiate Bowler of the Year did just that and the Lady Shox took an early 1-0 lead. Another string of strikes led to a 235-154 victory and the Shocker women moved into the finals.

In game one of the finals, against Webber University, the Lady Shox started off strong and took a quick lead early in the game. They held on and won the first game 231-213. Game two was a different story. After six frames, the women were down by four pins. Strikes in the eighth and ninth by juniors Laura Plazas (Bogotá, Colombia) and Kristie López (Ponce, Puerto Rico) set the stage for Kovalova again. Three strikes from Kovalova would force Webber to double in the tenth. Kovalova delivered and the Wichita State women waited for Webber to finish. Their anchor bowler got the first one but left a split on the next one, giving the Lady Shox the win, 210-197.

“In our half-way meeting on Saturday night, Coach Lewis reminded us of times we played well recently and to bring that player in on Sunday. We really did that. The seven of us really connected on a deep level and it was awesome,” Kovalova said. “We were so united, especially in match play. We focused on just us and what we were doing. We were intense and knew we had each other’s backs. It made throwing shots under pressure a little easier.”

Two 299 games highlighted the Shocker men’s qualifying block on their way to earning the top seed. The men averaged 220 over 40 Baker games to qualify first.

“It was an awesome start for us, probably our best start to an event yet this season. We took that momentum from the start and just rode the wave the entire time,” freshman Brandon Biondo (Carpentersville, Ill.) said.

Up first for the men was St. Ambrose University. They traded wins the first two games, Wichita State winning game one 236-198 and St. Ambrose winning game two 201-253. Through six frames of the third and final game, Wichita State was down by one pin. A spare in the seventh and then strikes in the eighth and ninth by freshmen Biondo and Wesley Low (Palmdale, Calif.) set up senior AJ Chapman (Manchester, Iowa) in the tenth frame. Chapman threw three strikes, forcing the St. Ambrose anchor to double to win. St. Ambrose got the first one, but failed to strike on the second one. Wichita State won the game 235-212.

The men made quick work of Vincennes University in the semi-finals, winning the match in two games with scores of 238-213 and 212-198.

In the finals against St. Francis, WSU started with a spare and a double before an unfortunate 7-10 split in the fourth frame. They struck until the eighth frame, but it was not enough as St. Francis strung strikes from early in the game. Game one went to St. Francis, 188-234. In game two, the men started with five spares and a split. St. Francis came out hot again and ran away with strikes, winning the game and the match 172-256.

“This weekend was so different from last weekend,” Chapman said. “We had a better mentality. I think being together for a week after being apart for a month was huge. We picked up right where we left off before break when we got back together for practice last week. It was great.”

February 20th and 21st will mark the end of the regular season as the Shox compete in the largest event of the regular season, the Hoosier Classic. For now, they have a few weeks of solid practice to get to.

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The Rhatigan Student Center has been the major financial and administrative supporter of the Wichita State University bowling program since 1959.