JACKSON, MICH. - Indiana Wesleyan Men's Bowling took part in the inaugural Dirty Bird Classic hosted by Concordia University on Saturday. This was a very high-profile event that not only featured last year's NAIA National Champions but multiple other top 25 teams and even a conference foe. The Wildcats went through qualifying with a total of 6213. That placed them in 6th place and a matchup with conference foe Spring Arbor. In the best-of-3 match, the Wildcats took the match 2-1. That set up a massive matchup with defending national champion Lawrence Tech. After losing the first game of the best of 3 match the Wildcats had their backs squarely against the wall. Down 45 pins going into the 6th frame, freshman Gage Blackford threw a clutch first strike that would start a string of seven consecutive strikes which was finished off by Junior Chris Mace, the final of which sealed the game and brought the match back to tied. The Wildcats then took the third game and advanced to the finals against an incredibly tough Concordia team. Unfortunately, IWU would come up short 3-0 against Concordia and would settle for a 2nd place finish, the highest in program history. A massive step forward for a team with high expectations this year, junior Shea Miller was the high finisher for the day with a 27th-place finish. Freshman Gage Blackford had a 33rd-place finish. Junior Chris Mace finished 39th. Parker Dean, Gage Slagor, and Landon Thomas also secured top-50 finishes in a talented field.
- Concordia: 7115
- Lawrence Tech: 7068
- Spring Arbor: 6922
- Madonna: 6578
- Aquinas: 6573
- Indiana Wesleyan: 6213
- Bowling Green State: 6168
- Vincennes: 6164
- Cleary: 5828
- Adrian: 5824
- Lourdes: 5372
- "I could not be any prouder of the way the guys competed today. They kept the energy high the entire day. There were multiple points within the day where the team could have went down and folded but every time they had their backs to the wall they came out punching. I am so proud of our veteran leaders on this team, Shea Miller and Chris Mace were absolutely massive all day. Chris had multiple shots in the match play finals that kept us alive. Overall I am ecstatic on how this team performed, how they picked themselves back up off the mat and how they are fully buying into the new culture and expectations we have set this season! Also, shoutout to our girls team and to the JV team for bringing the energy during the match play. That played a massive part in keeping the energy in the team during a 14 hour day at the lanes!"
- The Wildcats will travel to Michigan to bowl in the Cornerstone Classic on October 21st.
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