DAVENPORT, Iowa and MOLINE, Ill. – The Avila bowling teams continued a busy end to the fall semester of the second season in program history with their second straight trip to the Leatherneck Classic, where both Eagle teams finished in an identical position – 27th – in their respective fields.
At a unique tournament that was split up between four locations across the aptly-named Quad Cities, the Eagle men competed over a pair of days in Davenport, Iowa with the Eagle women some distance away in Moline, Illinois. Setups like that make life difficult for small coaching staffs, and this particular field made life difficult for a lot of the competing teams. 45 men’s teams participated in the Leatherneck Classic on the men’s side along with 35 women’s teams, and only the top eight squads qualified for bracket play on Sunday, making this tournament at once one of the largest and one of the most exclusive that Avila will participate in this season.
Even in the face of this competition and the difficult conditions, the Eagles were certainly consistent: Avila finished in 27th place in both fields after play on Saturday and stayed right there, in both fields, after play on Sunday.
On the men’s side, the Eagles were able to rotate many athletes in, as the still-young squad continues to test some of its newfound depth that it did not get to enjoy in their inaugural season. Max Sturgeon bowled in only five of the six team games that were used to track individual placement, but he paced the Eagles with a strong average of 202. The individual standings were tabulated by total pinfall rather than average, despite the disparity in games played across the field, meaning Sturgeon’s total tally placed well outside the top 100 – though there were more than 420 bowlers with totals tallied in the event. Evan Serrage finished closely behind Sturgeon with an average of 195 over five games.
On the women’s side, Devyn Coleman once again led the pack for the Eagles with a six-game average of 181, good for 61st in a field of more than 275 total bowlers. Claire Busch also finished inside the Top 100 with a consistent tournament and an average of 175.5.
Wichita State earned the top seed in the women’s bracket but second-seeded Mount Mercy took down the Shockers in the tournament final to win the title. On the men’s side, St. Ambrose earned the top seed as the only team with a pinfall north of 10,000, but fifth-seeded Indiana Tech pulled off three upsets to win the…
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