The RedTail Men's bowling team competed in Cedar Rapids this past weekend for the Five Seasons Classic, hosted by Mount Mercy. The format of the tournament was different compared to other tournaments, where each team we were on the same lanes with, we were bowling a match against them and your Win-Loss record determined your ranking within the event. Most of Saturday was a back and forth day with losses to Mount Mercy (899-996), Wartburg (860-932), and Coe (883-1052). Our wins during day 1 came from Grandview (957-856) and Upper Iowa (912-893). Simon Larsen was the top finisher with a 32nd place showing, averaging 185 for his five games. Charles (Cj) Rich and Kalen Recker were the next ones to follow, finishing in 63rd and 65th place respectively and both averaging 191, 192 for their four games bowled.
Day 2 came with more energy and a lot of close matches, coming down to the final frames of the games. The RedTails had losses to Peru State (644-647), inner state rivals Iowa Central (635-655), had a really good set against St. Ambrose but still lost (838-930), and loosing to Coe again in the position round by 1 pin (643-644). The only win we were able to get was against Clarke University (826-656). So with the format of the tournament, the RedTails were in 11th out of 13 teams, with a 3-7 win-loss record. However, when it comes to our national ranking points, we placed 9th out of the 13 teams, due to our total pinfall score.
Head coach Roger Taylor had some postives words after the RedTails latest competition.
"For the first tournament of the season, the men did a great job as a group, feeding off of each other's energy and going into this weekend as we prepare for our trip to Neenah, Wisconsin, the men know where our focus needs to be in order to be competitive going forward," he said. "I'm expecting big things from this group and I believe they can make some runs in other events, as the season progresses, by what I've seen from them during practices and now in competition. Go RedTails!"
