FORT WORTH, Texas — Southern Nazarene University Men's and Women's Bowling teams took the lanes on October 3 and 4 for the SWIBC 1 and 2 tournaments. SWIBC 1 and 2 are two separate tournaments that took place over one weekend in Garland, Texas. They are the first two of the eight SWIBC tournaments that take place over the course of the season.
SWIBC 1 consisted of five players bowling four individual games and ten Baker games to create a bracket for match play. Match play featured the four top-scoring teams, with seeds one and four battling and seeds two and three battling. Match play results were based on the highest pinfall over two games. This was the first time SWIBC had used this match play format. In SWIBC 2, players bowled six individual games.
In SWIBC 1, SNU Men's Varsity faced struggles during the early singles games. Due to unforeseen circumstances, tournament staff faced a challenge when the lane machine malfunctioned, resulting in lane conditions that differed from the lane pattern sent to teams prior to the SWIBC 1 event.
After a challenging first two games of individual team play, with scores of 868 and 883, the Crimson Storm battled back to earn scores of 1,024 and 1,049 in Games 3 and 4 of individual team play. They earned the No. 3 position entering Baker team play.
During Baker team play, the SNU men's team struggled but maintained the No. 4 position heading into Game 10. During the final game of Baker team play, the Crimson Storm ran into a tough pair of lanes and ended the qualifying round in fifth place. The top four teams in qualifying advanced to the match play round, and SNU missed the cut by 50 pins.
"This is something that happens in this sport on occasion," said Coach Jeffreys. "When the lane conditions are demanding, you must fill frames, and we did not execute in key frames during our final game of Baker play. You learn from the challenges you experience, and what we learned on Saturday will make us a better team going forward. The season is super early, and the takeaways from this event are motivating factors for success. It's all good."
Riley Speer earned fifth place on the All-Tournament Team (ATT) with an average of 203.8.
"The oil pattern they put out on Saturday was tricky. With the mistake they made while oiling the lanes, spare shooting became a premium, and it was very hard to strike," said the sophomore from Indiana. "I was fortunate enough to sneak into fifth place for ATT after staying mostly clean on my spares and grinding most of the day."
The next step was SWIBC 2 the following day, featuring six individual team games.
"We went into the second event with a different attitude and approach," said Coach Jeffreys. "Did we learn from the challenges on Saturday? We found the answer to that question early in the day."
SNU started the tournament with a score of 1,050. Junior Dylan Terada earned the highest score of the weekend for SNU, opening SWIBC 2 with a front eight to earn a score of 254. He shared, "It was a real confidence booster. I was focused on the team and just trying to make one good shot at a time."
The Crimson Storm held the lead during Games 2 and 3 with team totals of 941 and 956. In Games 4 through 6, they totaled 914, 1,037 and 986. They ended the day with a second-place finish and a total pin count of 5,884. Three players finished in the top 10, with freshman Diego Lujan placing sixth, Speer seventh and senior Brandon Handog 10th.
Lujan reflected, "My first freshman SWIBC was a learning experience. We pulled through to earn second place."
Terada echoed this sentiment, saying, "On Sunday, our communication with each other and Coach Jeffreys was the best it has been this year. We were figuring things out together."
SNU finished behind Newman University, totaling 5,884 pins over the six individual team games.
"This was a great bounce-back from Saturday's performance, and there is huge value in failure based on how this team responds to adversity. I'm really proud of what this team accomplished this past weekend," Jeffreys said.
SNU Women's Bowling had one of the best finishes in program history in SWIBC 1. Jeffreys and graduate assistant Alexander Hepp agreed that it was a true team effort. After the singles games, the Crimson Storm was seeded fourth and faced top-seeded Louisiana Tech. After the two Baker games, SNU came within 15 pins of Louisiana Tech and went on to face Barton Community College for third place. SNU Women's Bowling earned third place in SWIBC 1 match play with a total pinfall of 4,596 for the day.
In SWIBC 2, the women struggled during the first singles games but were able to make a comeback. Freshman Chryslyn Sakata finished fourth in ATT with an average of 175.17, while sophomore Hannah Roberson earned ninth place with an average of 165.
Sakata reflected positively on her first SWIBC experience, saying, "It was a great learning experience. My teammates and I were really pushed and were able to see ourselves come together as a team."
Roberson had her best tournament ever. She shared how the atmosphere of this tournament was different, with lots of encouragement from her teammates, coaches and parents throughout the day.
"Starting off was a bit rough, but eventually I figured it out with the help of communicating with my teammates and coach. By the third game, I had figured it out more and ended up with 172 in Games 3, 4 and 5!" she explained.
The women's team finished in fourth place with a team total of 4,644.
This weekend also marked the first time SNU Bowling had a junior varsity (JV) team on the men's side. In SWIBC 2, sophomore Trevor Trousil was the third-ranked JV player with an average of 185.8. Jeffreys expressed that he was glad the entire program was able to gain college bowling experience under challenging lane conditions.
Both sides of the Crimson Storm learned a great deal and walked away with team trophies and All-Tournament Team honors. Jeffreys joked, "It is always nice to drive back on I-35 with some new hardware."
Next up for the Crimson Storm is the Mid States Tier One in Wichita, Kansas, on October 16–17.
