Ison bowls perfect 300 game in Game 3; Bears finish seventh in OBC Match No. 3

Whether one is seasoned or not at the sport of bowling, the task of bowling a perfect 300 game is incredibly difficult.

Shawnee State freshman and Hillsboro product Zach Ison, however, took on the feat proudly, and made his statement loudly in doing so.

Ison, who had already bowled strong marks of 228 in Game 1 and 213 in Game 2, notched the lone perfect game on both the men's and women's side of competition as the freshman product ultimately stormed to a five-game total of 1,078 pins, and notched a 215.6 average en route to a ninth-place finish in the 116-bowler field while leading Shawnee State's men's bowling program to a seventh-place finish out of 18 teams Saturday at the Ohio Bowling Conference's Match No. 3, which was held at Columbus Square Bowling Palace in Columbus, Ohio.

The freshman's outing was the statement performance, but far from the lone bright spot, for the Bears, who dropped 7,164 pins in the competitive field. In doing so, Shawnee State bettered fellow NAIA programs Rio Grande (7,028 pins) and Mount Vernon Nazarene (6,697 pins) while also fairing better than Indiana (7,103), Akron (6,802), Cincinnati (6,438), Kent State (6,136) and Miami (6,046) along with four additional collegiate bowling programs from the Buckeye State.

Along with Ison, Blake Landers finished with a top-30 score, knocking down 1,033 pins over his five games of work by virtue of dropping 206 pins in Game 1, 212 pins in Game 3 and 225 pins in Game 4 en route to a 206.6 pin average. Landers finished in 22nd place.

In 41st, Huntington, W. Va.'s Sam Clay amassed 939 pins total with a 220 mark in Game 3 followed by a 218 game in the fourth of the five individual contests. Clay averaged 187.8 pins per game in his top-half finish.

Khoury Carroll-Tanner, who bowled an impressive 246 in Game 2, posted a strong 194.5 pin average en route to bowling a 778 in four games for a 61st place showing, while Parker Lauders placed 81st with a 537 average across three games and Jordan Hughes 93rd after bowling a 203 and 221 in Games 4 and 5 for a strong 424 -- or a 212-pin average -- in two games.

Jaylen Sumler's 112th rounded out varsity play for the Bears individually, who dropped 4,950 pins total in individual games and an additional 2,214 pins in Baker competitions.

Shawnee State's junior varsity squad, which finished sixth out of 12 teams and bettered five in-state programs as well as Thomas More (Ky.), were led by four top-25 finishes in the 72-bowler JV field, including Andrew Schoemer, who posted a four-game 744 to finish eighth, and Shaun Rodgers, who finished 15th with a four-game 714. Schoemer bowled a 210 in Game 3 while Rodgers bowled a 200 in Game 2, as the duo notched averages of 186 and 178.5, respectively.

Isaac Halter, who posted a 17th place finish with a four-game 706, notched a 215 in Game 2 en route to a 176.5 average in all, while Heckman finished with a four-game 692, averaging 173 pins dropped per game.

Junior varsity-wise, the SSU men finished with 3,504 pins dropped through individual play while notching another 1,546 pins dropped in Baker games.

The Shawnee State men's and women's bowling programs will compete Saturday, Dec. 9 to round out the slate of matches for the 2023 portion of the schedule before turning the page to five additional matches in 2024 to close out the season.

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