Women's bowling secures top-five finish at Ohio Bowling Conference Match No. 3

For the fifth time in as many matches to start the season, the women's bowling program at Shawnee State University secured a top-10 finish in the final rundown as the Bears notched an impressive fourth-place showing out of 18 teams at the Ohio Bowling Conference's third match of the 2023-24 campaign Saturday evening at Columbus Square Bowling Palace in Columbus, Ohio.

The SSU women, who dropped 6,294 pins during Saturday's action, bettered archrival Rio Grande (6,264) by 30 pins in Saturday's action, and also bettered 11 additional in-state programs, including fellow NAIA members Northwestern Ohio (5,911 pins) and Mount Vernon Nazarene (5,833 pins) as well as Kent State (5,210 pins), Akron (5,146 pins) and Cincinnati (2,331 pins). The Bears also eclipsed the totals that Walsh, Robert Morris (Pa.), Wittenberg, Tiffin, Thomas More (Ky.), Ohio Northern, Ursuline, and Baldwin-Wallace produced.

Hannah Rearick, Chloe Long, Skylar Lane, and Olyvia Bittner, who have all been high-producing bowling talents throughout their careers at Shawnee State, notched top-30 finishes in the 108-bowler field Saturday evening. Rearick, who notched a five-game total of 901 pins, averaged 180.2 pins per frame to finish 12th overall, while Long used a terrific 221 in Game 5 to ultimately post 887 pins through her five-game output, averaging 177.4 pins per game en route to a tie for 13th place overall in the field.

Lane and Bittner, meanwhile, were also impressive -- as Lane posted a five-game 822 to post a 164.4 pin average while Bittner posted a five-game 785 for an average of 157.

Morgan Higgins and Emma Billenstein also contributed to the individual total that SSU had, which amounted to 4,216 pins in all. In Baker games, Shawnee State knocked down 2,078 pins as a team -- one of just five groups to do so.

In all, only Muskingum (6,536 pins), Ohio State (6,620 pins) and Wright State (6,936 pins) finished ahead of the Bears in Saturday's match.

From a junior varsity standpoint, Brooklyn Foose's four-game 692 resulted in a fifth-place showing out of 39 bowlers while Kylie Fowler dropped 594 pins in her own four-game romp for an 11th place showing. Shawnee State dropped 2,890 pins in singles play and an additional 1,505 pins in Baker games for a total of 4,395 pins at the finish -- putting the Bears ahead of two Rio Grande junior varsity units as well as Thomas More's junior varsity squad.

The Shawnee State women's and men'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.

For more information on SSU Bears Athletics, visit www.ssubears.com or visit the Twitter and Facebook pages at https://twitter.com/SSUBears and https://www.facebook.com/SSUBears. For more information on how to join the SSU Bear Club or for sponsorship of specific SSU players or events, visit https://givetossu.com/bear-club and https://givetossu.com/sponsorthebears.