Lindenwood was led by Brad Miller, who finished 4th individually, posting a 9-game score of 2110. The tournament was led by Aaron Lorincz of SVSU with a 9-game total of 2146 (238.4 Average). Rounding out the top 5 were Marshall Kent of RMU (2nd, 2142), Jacob Kent of RMU (3rd, 2133), and Morehead State’s Mike Conn (5th, 2089).

Wichita State University led the women with a 9-game score of 9098 (1010/game, 202/bowler). They edged out Robert Morris University by 1 pin. Lindenwood finished in 3rd, with William Penn University and Florida State University in 4th and 5th.

Wichita State was led by Jazreel Tan (2nd, 1987). Katie Sexton from Robert Morris led all of the women with a 9-game total of 2030. The top 5 also included Amanda Greene from Lindenwood (3rd, 1899), Alejandra Mora from Robert Morris (4th, 1891), and Davenport University’s Reba Wilke (5th, 1856).

Rob Stone announced that he will be leaving ESPN for Fox Sports to announce soccer games. Stone will stay on for the remainder of the World Series of Bowling Events, as they have already been taped. ESPN chose Thorne to replace him for the rest of the 2011-2012 season. Gary Thorne is most commonly known as a hockey announcer, while doing work on several video games, including NHL ’12.

As I don’t know how much bowling knowledge Gary Thorne brings in, hopefully he can do a good job with PBA broadcasts. It showed time and time again that Rob Stone did not have much knowledge of our game and fans resented him for it. Hopefully Thorne will have a more positive impact on PBA fans and will be accepted as the announcer for our sport.

Unfortunately, Belmonte’s 300 wasn’t the biggest “news” to come from the show this week. ESPN chose to magnify Josh Blanchard’s “incident” during the first match. Blanchard had his ball stick on his thumb as he approached the foul line. Because of this, it carried him across, where he slipped on the lane. Throughout the day, ESPN has revisited this event several times, on shows such as Pardon the Interruption, Around the Horn, and even SportsCenter. Am I alone where I think that this is ridiculous of ESPN? You have a guy do something that requires and extreme amount of talent, something that’s only been done 20 other times, meanwhile you focus on the poor aspects of the game. ESPN’s representation of our sport has amazed me. They treat our sport like we’re just a bunch of fat drunks, while they promote other “sports” like poker. While I’ve seen the Blanchard clip (embarrassingly titled “Epic Bowling Fail”)  repeated over and over again on their network, I have yet to see one clip of Jason Belmonte’s 300 game. As far as I’m concerned, I think it’s about time the PBA packs its bags and finds a new network that will respect our sport, give it the coverage it deserves, and look to do more promotion of the sport than just sucking every dollar it can out of what it thinks their viewers need to see.

That’s just my 2 cents. If you have any other thoughts, I would love to hear them.

The men’s side of the tournament was led by WSU’s Geoffrey Young with a 9-game total of 2092. Pikeville’s Lucas Hohnstein finished in second with 2013 and Weber State’s Kasey Kolczak finished third with 1965.

Over on the women’s side, Kim Yioulos from Pikeville College led with a 9-game score of 1932. Midland’s Katie Maher finished second with 1929 and WSU’s Jazreel Tan finished third with 1926.

Full Results: Men | Women

Wright State beat out Marian University and Davenport University to start out the season with a win. Wright State was led by Erica Morgan (972, 194.4 Average), Katie Ruehl (912), and Melissa Klodnick (909), who finished 1st, 4th and 5th. Others in the top 5 included Shannon Dewitt (945) from Marian University and Jerrecah Heibel (913) of Notre Dame College.

Full Results

Men Team | Men Individual

Women Team | Women Individual

McKendree took down St. Ambrose, 3-1, while Davenport defeated William Penn, 3-1, in the championship matches at Woodland Bowl. The event was streamed live on BOWL.com from start to finish.

After dropping the first game 220-185, the Bearcats battled back to win the next three to defeat St. Ambrose. McKendree, the runner-up at the United States Bowling Congress Intercollegiate Team Championships last year, rolled with victories of 168-164, 217-186 and 243-159.

“All eight of my players had a great look, so I felt like I could use any of them at any time,” McKendree women’s coach Gary White said. “We just started steamrolling people in match play. It’s one of those rolls you like to get on and it just kept going. The girls did a great job.”

Davenport entered the double-elimination match-play bracket as the No. 15 seed after 24 games of qualifying on Thursday. The Panthers won the opening two games against William Penn, 183-176 and 205-190, before dropping the third game, 213-179. They took the fourth game 214-168 to lock up the win.

“We’ve got a group of guys who have really come to life in the last few weeks,” Davenport men’s coach Mike Eaton said. “Our bracket seemed pretty tough, but some of the top teams got beat early and that really helped us out.”

In the semifinals, St. Ambrose took down Robert Morris (Illinois), 3-2, while William Penn knocked off Viterbo, 3-1, to advance.

NAIA elevated bowling to emerging sport status last summer. The move by one of the nation’s governing bodies for collegiate athletics puts bowling on the path to becoming a championship sport for dozens of additional colleges and universities across the country.

In the 2010-11 season, teams from 28 schools fielded bowling teams.  If 50 or more NAIA member institutions designate bowling as a varsity sport, then bowling will be eligible for championship sport status and an NAIA national championship.

The NAIA has 50,000 student-athletes participating at nearly 300 member colleges and universities throughout the United States and Canada. Divided into 25 conferences and the Association of Independent Institutions, the NAIA offers 23 championships in 13 sports. All NAIA bowling programs are members of USBC Collegiate.

A total of 23 men’s teams and 22 women’s teams competed in the NAIA Invitational.

See the original article here at bowl.com

In winning the Mark Roth Plastic Ball Championship, Couch took home the $20,000 first prize and his 16th career PBA title. This title ended Couch’s 4 year drought and earns him a continuation on his exemption.

The first match had two former Collegiate All-Americans and Bowlers of the Year at Saginaw Valley State University in Bill O’Neill and Dan MacLelland. O’Neill was able to take over this match early and won decisively, 204-150. O’Neill went on to bowl against Ryan Shafer in the last Saturday night match. In a close match, Shafer was able to win, 193-183, as O’Neill left a split in the 10th frame. Shafer moved on to bowl against Mika Koivuniemi in the first Sunday match. Both bowlers scored well, but Mika was able to pull ahead and win the match, 236-222, and advance to the semifinals against Tommy Jones. Mika Koivuniemi continued to bowl well, as Jones struggled, and won the match, 241-158.

Mika Koivuniemi went on to face tournament leader Norm Duke in the finals. In a close match that went back and forth, it came down to the 10th frame. Norm Duke threw all strikes in the 9th and 10th frames to force Mika to mark in the 10th. Mika threw a great shot in the 10th, but left a 10 pin. All that was left was to cover the spare and get 8 pins on the fill ball. Off his hand Mika knew he had made a bad shot, as the ball fell into the gutter in front of the 10 pin. Norm Duke had won the match, 225-216, and the tournament.

After the match was over, both bowlers were visibly sick to their stomachs. As Norm Duke was happy to win, his feelings of sympathy toward Mika Koivuniemi strongly overpowered his happiness.

“I sat there stunned, shocked,” Duke said. “I knew I had just won the U.S. Open, but at that moment, my only thought was Mika had just lost. I was just like a fan watching in the living room. How could you not feel badly for him.”

“Mika will be fine, he’ll bounce back. He’s going to be our Player of the Year,” Duke said. “But he’ll never forget that one.”

In winning the U.S. Open, Norm Duke has won his 34th career PBA title and his 7th career PBA Major title.