- Jan 29

MEN'S TEAM 2nd, WOMEN'S TEAM 4th IN K.C., MO.

The SNU Men’s and Women’s Bowling Teams were back in action making the trip to Kansas City, Missouri for the Avila Eagle Invitational. The 10th event of the inaugural season featured competition against 13 universities from all across the region. The format at the Eagle Invitational was five individual team games followed by 16 Baker games with the field being cut to the Top 8 for Bracket Play.

Both the Men’s and Women’s Teams performed well in qualifying and earned a position in Bracket Play. The SNU Men qualified 2nd with 8,115 and missed leading the field by 7 pins while the SNU Women qualified 7th with 6,513.

The Men’s Team was led by freshman, Tobias Hurte, who averaged 213.2 and earned his second All Tournament Team award of the season. “I have said this before, Tobias is probably the best freshman lead off player in the Nation,” said Coach Jeffreys. “The ability to be versatile and give his teammates a great look after moving lanes is a huge asset for this Men’s program. Tobias is everything you want your lead off player to be and more and we are very fortunate to have him in this program."

Another huge factor for the 2nd place qualifying performance was the rise of freshman, Jared Pogue. The lefty has worked extremely hard on his game this season and has become a student of the game. “Jared had a great look during this event,” said Coach Jeffreys. “Jared has made so much progress during his first college season by putting a plan together and spending a ton of time working on his game during the break and during practice. The results of his hard work were showcased in Kansas City. For a guy that has not been in the game that long, it was pretty cool to see his hard work pay off with his contribution to the team’s efforts this past weekend.”

The Women’s Team was led by freshman, Makena Cruz who averaged 178.2 on a very challenging lane pattern and finished in 13th in the individual standings. “Makena just continues to get better and increase her knowledge of the game,” said Coach Jeffreys. “The Women’s Team fought through some adversity during practice this week and during this event but the Women’s Team pushed forward including the best event of the season for freshman, Savannah Hawkins. Savannah averaged 165.4 and did a great job on a tough lane pattern and shot 210 game four at a critical time to make the push for the Top 8 and bracket play.”

On to bracket play for both the Men’s and Women’s Teams. The Men opened up Round 1 against the host university, Avila. The Crimson Storm earned the win in the opening round of the best two out of three bracket play with a 2-0 victory over Avila. “Really it's about the building up of experience for this team,” said Coach Jeffreys. “We overcame some mistakes and earned a solid opening round win.”

The Women’s Team had an opening round match up with number two seed, Grandview University. The SNU Women met the challenge and earned the upset against Grandview University 2-0 and captured their first victory in bracket play. “Once again, the adversity combined with a making shots on difficult lane pattern showcased the ability to make a push in bracket play with the opening round win,” said Coach Jeffreys.

The Men’s Team faced Peru State College in the semi-finals. Peru qualified 4th and had a talented player, Isaac Skalak who earned a 4th place finish in the individual standings and earned a spot on the All Tournament Team. The Crimson Storm earned 1-0 lead but ran into some challenges in Game 2. “We did not do a great job with our spare game all day long and it was magnified in bracket play,” said Coach Jeffreys. “We work on our spare game all the time but sometimes a simple task becomes complex when you let your mental focus slip. I always say that spare shooting is like shooting free throws. No defense, just you and the rim. Spare shooting is the same, just you and the single pins. We let Peru State back in the match due to our spare shooting. Definitely, a point of emphasis this week at practice.” The Crimson Storm Men went on to defeat Peru State after losing Game 2 with a solid Game 3 performance.

The Women’s Team went to battle in the semi-finals against a tradition rich Baker University team. Baker qualified 4th and once again the SNU Women’s Team played the underdog role. After losing Game 1, the Crimson Storm had an opportunity to send Game 2 into extra frames by earning a tie if freshman, Sienna Stoner could strike in the final fill frame. Stoner made a great shot and the 9 pin remained on the pindeck and the Crimson Storm was defeated by Baker University 2-0. “The performance by this team this past weekend was really good,” said Coach Jeffreys. “Everyone on this team had a part in making it to the semi’s. Savannah Hawkins, Makena Cruz, Brenna Winders, Sienna Stoner, Kristina Holcomb and Kailee Wilcox should be proud of what they accomplished this weekend in K.C. It was Kristina’s first college event and there were a little nerves but she settled down and made some key shots in key frames. It’s all part of the experience process. Kailee Wilcox did a fantastic job helping out with the Women's Team this weekend in K.C. and it's great to get the team support demonstrated by Kailee while she works very hard on her game this semester.”

The SNU Men’s Team earned a spot in the finals against #25 in the Nation, Oklahoma Christian University. The Crimson Storm entered the K.C. event ranked #22 so, two Top 25 teams, the veteran team against the year one team with mostly freshman, would battle for the title of the 2024 Eagle Invitational. OCU was missing one of the top players in the nation, C.J. Petrin, who was competing in the 2024 U.S. Open but, OCU was dialed in with the deep lineup Coach Hayes has on the OCU roster.

Game 1 was a tight match until a little bit of lane transition occured on the championship pair. Two bad breaks for the Crimson Storm on back to back shots by David Swavely and Jared Pogue gave the OCU Eagles the opening needed to clinch the Game 1 win. The teams switched lanes and the Crimson Storm needed some momentum on the more difficult lane 29 to even up the match. OCU opened up the first six frames with strikes and the SNU Men continued to struggle and went down Game 2 and trailed the best of five final, 2-0. Both teams switched lanes again and the match up challenges continued for the SNU Men’s Team and the OCU Eagles dominated the match taking Game 3 to earn the title. “This was a valuable experience for this team,” said Coach Jeffreys. “OCU was really good and we could not get dialed in on this pair of lanes but, the lessons learned from this finals match will help us so much in the coming events. There was some guts shown by this team this weekend including Connor Anderson, who stepped up while battling an injury. For this team to be in the position to win says a lot about what this team is about and the progress made from the time the kids arrived on campus. We have a long way to go in the process, but man…….this is going to continue to be a fun ride.”

The Crimson Storm will be in action on February 3rd and 4th in San Antonio, Texas for the SWIBC Championship and working toward Sectional Playoffs in March. Check out the Live Action on snubowling.com beginning Saturday February 3rd approximately 9:00am Central Time.

FINAL RESULTS

MEN'S QUALIFYING STANDINGS