The Barton Community College bowling team placed 6th on the men's side and 7th in the women's at the NJCAA National Championships held the past three days at the Airport Lanes in Cheektowaga, New York.
Griffin Peterson etched his name in program history, becoming the second male and fourth overall All-America performance with his 6th place individual standing of the 130-man field.
The Cougars finished strong on its last of three days of competition, making a spot climb into the 6th position with 13,421 pins to distance Mid-Michigan College by 99 pins while coming up 165 pins shy of moving up into the fifth spot.
Angelina Leeper bettered teammate Courtney Kitchen by just 18 pins to finish 22nd overall of the 100-participant field to grab team high bragging honors, as the duo compiled 2174 and 2156 pins respectively.
Men's Recap
Following day 1 competition the Cougars found themselves in seventh place tallying 5,972 pins over the trio of singles and three double games trailing sixth place Mid-Michigan's mark of 6,135. Peterson led the Barton squad posting the fourth best three game score of 688 with his highest game of 265 in the opener.
Doubles action saw Peterson and Bryce Moore pacing the Barton lineup with a 15th best mark of 1,235. Caleb Carr and Conner Eastman rounded out the top-25 finishes on the squad recording the 23rd best combined score of 1,170.
Competing in second day action consisting of six team games over two blocks games, the Cougars pulled within 82 pins of sixth place Mid-Michigan College.
Competing in Saturday's finale consisting of nine baker games over three blocks, the Cougars made the march up the leaderboard outscoring Mid-Michigan College by 17 pins over final day action. Individually Peterson slipped two spots scoring 1,256 over final day action settling for sixth place overall to earn All-America honors.
Moore the reigning All-America from a season ago concluded with the second-best individual finish over the three day event earning the 31st best score of 2,391 while Aidan VanMetre finishing right behind in 32nd with a pin count of 2,384 to round out the top-40 finishes for the Cougars.
Claiming the team title was Rock Valley compiling a three-day total of 14,832 outlasting Erie Community College's 14,562.
Women's Recap
Competing over two days, the Cougar women posted an opening day seventh best team score of 7,555 over the three individual, three double and six five-team games over two blocks.
Leeper guided the individual performances for the Cougars turning in the ninth best card of 600 over the trio games tossed before finishing 22nd overall with total accumulation of 2,174. Kitchen fell just a spot back tipping down 2,156 pins while Jasmine Bridges and Ella Adkins rounded out Barton's top-50 performances in 32nd and 46th respectfully.
Looking to jump up the leaderboard in the final day featuring three blocks of three baker games, the Cougars would outscore sixth place Hawkeye Community College, but the gap would fall short still trailing by 232 pins.
Securing the team title was Rock Valley Community College besting the 19-team field with a final pin destruction of 13,317. Iowa Western Community College fell 911 pins back with a total 12,406 total.