SSU men's bowling puts four in top-25, five in top-30; finishes fifth at OBC Match No. 2
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The men's bowling program at Shawnee State put together a strong group effort at the Ohio Bowling Conference's Match No. 2 Saturday at the Columbus Bowling Palace -- as all five of its varsity bowlers that competed Saturday, including Sam Clay, Blake Landers, Zach Ison, Jaylen Sumler and Khoury Carroll-Tanner, each finished inside the top-30 overall in individual play and led Shawnee State to a fifth place showing in the 17-team field in Saturday's event in an impressive display.
Shawnee State, who knocked down 5,702 pins as a team, bowled an impressive average of 203 pins per game en route to going toe-to-toe with some of the best competition across the entire nation in the bowling realm.
In all, the Bears finished just 308 pins back of the top unit at the event, Ohio State, who knocked down 6,010 pins and claimed a 214-pin average as a group. Muskingum's 5,920 markers, Wright State's 5.860 notches, and Northwestern Ohio's 5,768 tabs were just ahead of Shawnee State in the finishing order.
Overall, Shawnee State finished ahead of 11 teams in the finishing order, including Baldwin Wallace, Ohio Northern, Robert Morris, Akron, St. Vincent (Pa.), Rio Grande, Cincinnati, Thomas More, Kent State-Trumbull, Mount Vernon Nazarene, Tiffin, and Capital. The Bears were one of just seven teams to finish with an average of 200 pins per rack for the event and were no less than 135 pins better than everybody behind them with the exception of Baldwin Wallace and Ohio Northern.
Individual play
In individual games, Shawnee State was not only competitive throughout, but electric as everybody who performed contributed in a major way.
For the second consecutive event running, Sam Clay posted the team's best overall mark. The senior, a consistent stronghold at the top of the lineup, improved from 13th to 11th at the finish after bowling an impressive four-game 865 to average 216.25 pins per rack. Clay didn't bowl below 192 in any game, and nabbed marks of 205, 245 and 223 in Games 1, 3, and 4 in an all-conference caliber performance once again.
Just five pins back of Clay, Blake Landers' four-game 861 put two Shawnee State bowlers in the top-15 as Landers averaged 215.25 pins per rack to place 14th overall in the 98-bowler field. Landers didn't bowl below 199 in any game and also went big in Games 1, 3, 4 with marks of 236, 223 and 203, respectively.
Zach Ison, who continues to be a threat to bowl 300 in any game after becoming the first SSU bowler to ever bowl a 300 game in official competition last season, came within whiskers of accomplishing the feat once again as Ison posted the third-highest single game score of any bowler in Saturday's event with a Game 1 275. Ison then ripped off back-to-back 200s in Games 2 and 3, ultimately finishing with an 846-pin total over four games to average 211.5 pins per rack.
Jaylen Sumler, who officially put four Bears in the top-25 with his four-game 817, nearly bettered Ison's mark later on -- as Sumler went out in Game 3 and threw a 255-pin outing, then followed that up with a strong 199-pin performance to close out matters in Game 4. Sumler averaged 204.25 pins as a result of his efforts.
Becoming the third player on Shawnee State's roster to bowl over 230 in Game 1, Khoury Carroll-Tanner followed up his 236 in Game 1 with a 200 in Game 2 as the Maryland native ultimately nabbed a four-game 786 to knock down 196.5 pins per rack, completing a strong effort by the Bears from top to bottom in varsity play.
In Baker play, Shawnee State also shined -- nabbing the highest Game 7 score by dropping 227 pins as a group. The Bears also dropped the third-highest scores in Games 1 (221) and 5 (206).
JV
The junior varsity section of the tournament continued to see Andrew Schoener shine in a big way -- as Schoener ripped off a pair of games over 200 on his own accord. Schoener bowled a 234 in Game 2 and a 247 in Game 4 to help Shawnee State finish sixth out of 14 junior varsity programs while Schoener collected a sixth-place finish out of 79 individual bowlers. The junior bowled an 853 over four games en route to collecting 213.25 pins per rack.
Additional
Shawnee State gets back to action in two weeks time at a new venue for the program -- as the Bears will travel to Cedar Lanes in Sandusky, Ohio to compete at the AHBA Event No. 3 which will commence on Saturday, Nov. 2.
