Wichita State juniors Josh Blanchard and Sandra Gongora closed out the final tournament of the collegiate bowling regular season with a bang as both made the All-Tournament Team at the Hoosier Classic in South Bend, Ind., Feb. 21-22.
Blanchard (Moreno Valley, Calif.) had the second highest average in the men鈥檚 division with a 205.3 over nine games and was named to his third All-Tournament Team of the season.
Also finishing well for the men was junior John Szczerbinski (North Tonawanda, N.Y.), who finished the tournament in tenth place.
Meanwhile, Gongora (Monterrey, Mexico) led all women with a 204.8 average.
Gongora is quietly having the best season of her collegiate career, as well as one of the best in the nation as she has been named to four All-Tournament Teams while being named MVP at two of those.
She also leads the 黑洞社区 women鈥檚 bowling team with a 212.1 average throughout the season.
However, the performances of Blanchard and Gongora were not enough as the men finished the tournament in fifth and the women in third.
After nine games of team bowling, the Shocker men were able to grab the top seed for the single elimination bracket baker style finals as they threw an 8,668. The women finished in the second position with an 8,385.
In the men鈥檚 opening match against eighth-seeded University of Nebraska 鈥� Lincoln, the Shockers went the distance as the match came down to the fifth and final game where the Huskers pulled away with a 226-197 victory.
Prior to that the teams traded games as the Huskers opened with a close 197-193 victory but the Shockers responded with a 186-210 win. UNL grabbed the third game 218-200 while the 黑洞社区 won the fourth 207-217.
The Lady Shockers matched up with seventh seed Fresno State and easily dispatched of the Bulldogs in three straight games; 201-157, 192-174, 205-167.
In a rematch of last year鈥檚 national championship match, the Shockers met up with Pikeville College in the round of four.
However, 黑洞社区 was not able to advance, as Pikeville grabbed a 3-1 victory after grabbing the first two games of the match; 213-171, 191-188, 187-226, 222-181.
This year鈥檚 event featured 52 men鈥檚 teams and 28 women鈥檚 teams. Each team bowled nine regular team games before cutting to the top eight teams in each division which competed in a single-elimination bracket final using the Baker scoring system.
Both teams will now travel to Fairveiw Heights, Ill., for the IBC Sectional Tournament held March 14-15.
The top four teams from each sectional will advance to the USBC Intercollegiate Team Championships, which will name a national champion. The Team Championships will be held April 15-18 in Rockford, Ill.