Men’s Bowling finishes 24th at Glenn Carlson Las Vegas Invite

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (December 19, 2022) – The Milligan University men's bowling team finished 24th of 47 varsity teams at the Glenn Carlson Las Vegans Invitational on Monday and Tuesday.

The Buffs competed in their largest Tier 1 event of the 2022-23 season thus far. Milligan took on schools across the nation from NCAA Division I, Division II, Division III, NAIA and junior college ranks.

"This tournament was a great chance to compete against close to 50 schools across the US and many that we won't see again until the National Team Championships in March," said head coach Brian Rickert.

Over the course of nine qualifying games, the Buffs totaled 8,359 pins, eight spots out of bracket play.

"I think we showed that we have a squad that can contend," said Rickert. "while we didn't finish as high as we'd like, we definitely are bringing back a checklist of some strengths and things we will continue to work on."

Cooper Brackins led the charge for the Buffs in the individual standings with a team-best 1,790 pins to finish 36th overall. His nine-game average of 198.9 pins paced the Buffs' JV lineup. Brackins hit his strike in games 4-7 as he posted four-straight 200-pin games with a high of 246.

Tristan Crawford eclipsed 200 pins in five of his nine qualifying games and led Milligan's varsity group with 1,761 pins (195.7 average) to finish 43rd. Jameson Whaley made it three Buffs in the top 50 individually as Whaley was 46th with 1,757 pins (195.2 average).

Cameron Shockey (78th, 1,669 pins), Caleb McDonald (91st, 1,628 pins) and Christian Brown (100th, 1,594 pins) all notched top-100 individual finishes.

In the eight team junior varsity event, Milligan finished second overall with 7,998 total pins. The Buffs and top-seeded Grand Canyon University advanced to bracket play for the JV championship. In the best-of-five head-to-head baker competition, the Buffs took the second and third games 178-172 and 212-184, however GCU pulled out the final two baker games to claim the JV title 3-2.

"Our JV players are putting in some great work in practice and it was such a great achievement to finish second in qualifying and almost bring home the title in a hard-fought fifth game winner-take-all match against Grand Canyon," said Rickert. "When you think about how new our program is, our meager roster of 10 guys which is a third of what some of these schools like Grand Canyon have… we are definitely getting some respect."

The Buffs continue their Vegas trip with the Tier 1 Collegiate Shootout on Dec. 20-21.