The Barton Community College bowling programs battled the lanes this past weekend at the 13th Annual Hammer Lions Classic held in St. Charles, Missouri. Competing as the lone NJCAA program in the 10-team field, both teams returned home gaining another sufficient learning opportunity as the Cougar women placed eighth and the Barton men ninth.
Women's Recap:
The Cougars stood eighth after Saturday's three traditional games and 20 Baker games piecing together a total pinfall of 5231.
Entering Sunday's best of three bracket play format, Barton opened the double-elimination tournament knocking off Avila University in straight sets (183-156 and 163-154).
The Cougars would be bounced to the consolation side falling in straight games to top seeded and eventual champions Newman University (169-130 and 182-150). Barton's weekend run would end as Avila got the revenge when it mattered in the backside taking the Cougars down in tight endings (155-146 and 169-144).
Individually over the weekend Casey Feast edged out Courtney Kitchen by two pins over three games rolled as the duo finished 32nd and 33rd respectively out of the 78-participant field.
Feast totaled a team high score of 505 along with the highest round score of 201 in the second game helping her to a team best tournament average score of 167.7 per-10 frames.
Brecken Philbrick concluded the top-50 finishers for the Cougars as the freshman tallied a 40th place finish and individual total of 480 pins over the three games bowled.
Men's Recap:
Concluding Saturday's trio of team games and 20 Baker games the Barton men secured the ninth seed destroying over 5642 pins.
In Sunday's bracket play Barton got off to a solid start against Lewis University taking the opening game 177-124 before being bounced to the consolation side dropping the next two in the best of three 180-137 and 178-155.
Dropping onto the consolation side of the bracket, the Cougars run would be short lived as a 1-0 lead would fade as fifth seeded Missouri Baptist University secured the final two matches 227-196 and 165-157. Claiming the bracket championship was top seeded McKendree University.
Leading Barton individually was Dylan Depperschmidt's 44th place finish as the freshman accumulated a team high 514 total pin count and averaging a team high round score of 171.
Freshman Preston Miller fell four spots back turning in a 48th place finish in the 111-competitor field rolling a three round score of 491.
Depperschmidt and Miller rolled to the highest game score for the Cougars each turning in games of 181.
Barton will have the weekend off before concluding the fall portion of the schedule at the Bronco Open held November 20th-21st at Hastings, Nebraska.