BOWLING

The HU bowling teams hosted the final regular season Crossroads League bowling tournament last Saturday at MVP Lanes in Fort Wayne where the men took second and the women finished third. The tournament format featured four team games in the morning and 16 Baker games in the afternoon.

Overall, the day didn’t unfold as Coach Mike Shockey thought it would. “As the host school, we chose the oil pattern and felt the pattern should have scored well early in the day and transitioned into a tougher pattern after about game two.

“The pattern did not break down as we thought it would and the scoring pace overall was a lot higher than we wanted and expected.”

The Forester men had another solid showing by posting a total score of 7471 for the day. Derek Leyba and Austin Schultz both bowled well to earn All-Tournament Team honors with a second and third place individual finish respectively.

Leyba knocked over 964 pins on the day for a 241 four-game average while  Austin finally found some pin carry to bowl a 936 for a 234 per game average. Matt Foutz narrowly missed a spot on the all-tourney team by finishing sixth with a 221.5/game average.

“The guys have been bowling well since December,” said Shockey. “We always push the team to have more consistent shot making, but from where we started the season at in October to now it feels like a different team.

“They have embraced real team bowling and could be a dark horse contender for a match play run at the Hoosier Classic next weekend.”

The HU women finished the day with a pin total of 6740. Amber Elliott was impressive for Shockey’s crew. Her 820 total for a 205 four-game average earned her a fourth place finish and spot on the All-Tournament Team.

“We really can’t complain much about our performance this weekend,” noted Shockey. “The shot making, communication and spare shooting were all improved from the last few weeks.

“The pins just would not cooperate with us. The ladies are heading in a good direction and with the Hoosier next weekend, we could still make a strong case for an at-large to the NAIA national tournament.

The Foresters head to Indianapolis on February 19-20 for the Columbia 300 Hoosier Classic.