COLUMBIA 300 BACKED TEAMS SWEEP BAKER CHALLENGE - Men from Newman inch by; Lady ’Dores sweep tourn
February 12, 2010
The Columbia 300 sponsored Vanderbilt Lady Commodores and the Newman University Men’s bowling teams dominated the McKendree Baker Challenge on Feb. 6-7 in Saint Louis, Mo.
The McKendree University men’s bowling team hosted its leg of the challenge, which featured eight of the top 20 teams in the nation, at Strike ’N Spare Lanes.
The No. 2 seeded, Columbia 300-sponsored-Newman Jets got off to a slow start and ended the first day of competition in sixth place with a team average of 213. Day 2 dawned and Newman was hot to trot. They scorched up the lanes during the course of the 20 baker games, setting a school average record of 225 and landing the Jets in second place going into bracket play.
The Jets were on a roll as they displaced the seventh-seeded Bellermine, 2-0, before moving on to the semi-finals against national powerhouse Northern Illinois. In a nail biter back and forth match, Newman senior Derek Hartnell struck on the tenth frame of the third game. The Huskies failed to convert the two strikes it needed to win and the Jets advanced to the finals with a narrow 2-1 victory.
The Jets faced off with host McKendree in the championship tournament. The Bearcats had knocked off nationally ranked No. 2 Lindenwood and No. 3 Robert Morris to earn its berth into the finals.
It was a neck-and-neck battle for the first round in the finals. Although the Jets were unable to strike early in the match, they kept the score manageable by picking up eight straight spares before the cool, calm, and collected Hartnell delivered back-to-back strikes, sealing the victory for the Jets, 205-203, and giving his team a leg up.
Not wanting to endure another close match, Newman went on to quickly seal the deal in game two. After a spare in the first, the Jets followed with six straight strikes to clinch not just the McKendree Baker Challenge Championship, but also its first victory of the year.
Just two miles across town the McKendree women’s bowling team were playing host to the Vanderbilt University Lady Commodores at Olivette Lanes.
The Lady ’Dores crushed the field at the baker challenge with a dominating performance to take the win, its third team championship this season.
Using a combination of Pure Swings and Full Swings, with some Resurgences thrown in to start the two day event, the Commodores combined for an average 232 and easily won the best two-of-three Baker format. They closed out the days with a Freeze/Jazz mix, according to Vanderbilt Head Coach John Williamson.
“Our girls like consistent reactions and all the balls are designed to be even rolling for a predictable reaction,” Williamson said. “We started with some more aggressive cover stocks and cores but quickly went to some of the lower end stuff to play where we felt we needed to be. The Freeze has become a ball our girls are very confident with to win tournaments that are on the line because it’s a ball they throw pretty much every tournament.”
In addition to the rotation of the Swing and Freeze balls, Vanderbilt used a rotation of Jessica Earnest, Kayla Rhoades, Brittany Garcia, Brittni Hamilton and Josie Earnest in the match games.
“Kayla, Brittany Garcia … well, when you shoot those kind of scores pretty much everyone had to be doing something right,” Williamson, who had just watched his No. 1 rated NCAA team earn the trophy by tossing a 275 at top-seeded Weber International’s otherwise excellent 256.
“We started that last game with an open frame, then peeled off ten straight strikes, and threw — I think — a seven ball on the last roll,” Williamson said. “Their 256 was somewhat after the fact because by the time we had 10 in a row they were a few frames behind us and didn’t have any pressure at their finish.”
The Commodores had opened the day with strong 885 and 838 efforts, and then stumbled slightly with 735 and 790 totals which cost them the top seed to the Weber team, an NAIA squad that attracts good international players by its proximity to the famous Kegel Training Center.
As the field of 20 was cut to the top eight, Vandy opened by beating host McKendree, then got a head of steam going against Robert Morris-Chicago before throwing 268-275 at what must have been a bewildered Weber quintet, whose 234.5 average would normally be sufficient to win a lot of tournaments.
“Weber International is a very good team,” Williamson said. “And so were some others here. It wouldn’t surprise me if three or four of these teams would make the NAIA national finals. This wasn’t as deep of a field as we’ll see in two weeks at the Hoosier Classic, but it was still talented.”
The teams will return to action Feb. 20-21 at the Hoosier Classic in Indianapolis, Ind.
— Based in Hopkinsville, Ky., Columbia 300 is a long-time power brand servicing the bowling world with quality and professional products. Its parent company, Ebonite International, Inc., is a privately-owned company that services bowling centers, distributors and retail outlets both domestically and internationally. The company’s other consumer product brands include Ebonite, Hammer, Robby’s, Columbia 300 and Track. Its commercial product brands are Ebonite VanTech Capital Equipment, Ebonite Bowling Center Direct and Powerhouse™. For more information, please visit http://www.columbia300.com.
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