Bowling teams compete at ISC/ITC national championships

LAS VEGAS -- The Mount Mercy men's and women's bowling teams made competed at the Intercollegiate Singles Championships and Intercollegiate Team Championships at South Point Plaza Bowling Stadium late last week, finishing their respective seasons on day two of match play on Friday. 

The Mustang men finished 11th in qualifying and took on sixth-seeded Purdue in their opening round of match play Thursday afternoon. The Boilermakers came out on top, 4-2, sending Mount Mercy to the consolation bracket. They also faced Pikeville in an early morning match on Friday, and the 14th-seeded Bears knocked out the Mustangs, 4-2. Third-seeded Wichita State defeated fourth-seeded St. Ambrose in the final to earn the national championship.

A pair of Mustangs qualified for the Intercollegiate Singles Championships, which were also held at South Point earlier in the week. Mount Mercy's Brett Lloyd, seeded 10th, defeated 23rd-seeded Cameron Shockey in round one, 641-526, then lost a tough second-round matchup with seventh-seeded AJ Wolstenholme, 632-628.

After a first-round bye, fifth-seeded Kai Evans beat 12th-seeded Charles Bostic, 622-597 to advance to the quarterfinals. His run ended there, however, as fourth-seeded Vincent Luong defeated Evans, 659-606. Luong reached the finals where he was beaten by Wolstenholme, 259-170.

In a repeat of their first-round matchup in 2022, the 14th-seeded Mount Mercy women battled third-seeded Maryville to open match play on Thursday afternoon. This time around, it was Maryville that earned a 4-3 victory, having come back from a 3-0 deficit to defeat the Mustangs.

Mount Mercy faced 11th-seeded Pikeville to stay alive Friday morning and advanced with a 4-2 win before 15th-seeded SCAD-Savannah eliminated the Mustangs one round later, 4-2. Maryville made it all the way to the finals before losing to top-seeded McKendree, the 2023 national champion.