SSU men's bowling rises to fourth, advances to semifinals of Raider Classic

What a difference a year makes.

One year after finishing 25th in the Raider Classic, the Shawnee State men's bowling program used a terrific effort throughout the weekend to finish fourth overall in the same event in 2023, knocking down 8,270 pins to score a masterful top-five finish and a semifinal berth in the Raider Classic, which was held at Beaver-Vu Lanes in Beavercreek, Ohio.

In dropping the previously mentioned 8,270 pin total, Shawnee State bettered Ohio State by 70 pins for fourth place and also beat nine other Ohio institutions, including Notre Dame College (8,159, sixth), Northwestern Ohio (8,091, eighth), Rio Grande (7,984, ninth), Toledo (7,458, 13th), Akron (7,382, 14th), Tiffin (7,178, 16th), Cincinnati (7,169, 17th), Ohio Northern (7,102, 18th) and Miami (6,818, 20th).

Of the men's bowlers, Parker Lauders -- from Mount Orab, Ohio -- notched the program's best individual finish at 21st overall -- knocking down 200 or more pins in three out of the five individual games with a high mark of 236 in his second game. Lauders, who also dropped 224 pins in his first game and 200 on the button in his third, ultimately knocked down 1,022 pins for an average of 204.4 pins dropped per game over his five-game series.

Not far behind him, Sam Clay dropped 1,013 pins en route to a 25th place mark. The Huntington, W. Va. native nailed 226 pins to the surface in the second game and followed that effort up with a 235-pin effort in Game 4 en route to an average of 202.6 pins per game over his own five-game series.

Zach Ison matched Parker Lauders' team-high, from an individual game standpoint, with 236 pins dropped in his opening game en route to a five-game total of 986, while Blake Landers posted a 945 over five games -- dropping 226 pins in Game 1 and 218 pins in Game 3 for the aforementioned total.

Goldsboro, N.C.'s Jaylen Sumler and Flemingsburg, Ky.'s Logan Hughes split individual rounds to close out the men's bowling program's effort, with Sumler's 225 in Game 1 and Hughes' 215 in Game 4 heading the charge.

In Sunday's Baker games, Shawnee State bowled at or over 200 in 10 out of its 16 Baker games -- notching a team-high 277 in the very first of the 16 Baker affairs. SSU also bowled a 266 and a 248 in two additional Bakers, setting the tone for a fantastic effort that saw the Bears rise from fifth after the opening day of competition to fourth at the end of the second and final day.

Shawnee State was one of eight schools total who knocked down over 8,000 pins in the Raider Classic. Only Marian, Ind.'s 8.813 pins, host Wright State's 8,558, and Robert Morris, Pa.'s 8,373 were more than the total that Bryan Sturgell's club accumulated through the two-day event.

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