Men’s Bowling wins MSC Lynne Jordan Memorial

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (January 20, 2024) – The Milligan University men's bowling team won its first tournament in program history as the Buffs topped the standings at the Mid-South Conference Lynne Jordan Memorial on Saturday.

"Today the guys were able to 'finish,'" said assistant coach Jeff Herman. "Out of the gate we jumped out and made the other teams chase us. The whole team fed off each other's energy… it was a complete team effort."

The one-day tournament format included five team games and a dozen baker games. Following the team games, Milligan topped the standings with 5,586 pins, 23 pins ahead of second-place Pikeville. The Buffs were the only team to exceed 1,000 pins in all five of their team games.

"We could all tell we were going to do something special when we broke the 1,100 barrier for two games in a row," said Herman.

Milligan opened baker play with a four-game block score of 882 (220.5 average) and finished with a baker total of 2,476 pins (206.33 average) as the Buffs finished with 8,062 pins to take the team tournament title by 42 pins over No. 4 Pikeville.

Nate Trentler and Joshua Collins earned all-tournament honors and Alex Evans joined the duo with a top-10 finish. Trenter and Collins sat at No. 1 and No. 2 in the individual standings heading into the fifth game but Pikeville's Bryce Oliver rolled a 300 to claim the tournament title.

Trentler cleared 1,195 pins (239.0 average) with high games of 264 and 255 to finish as the tournament runner-up. Collins followed in third with 1,162 pins (232.4 average) with highs of 260 and 256.

"I'm excited for Nate and Josh to grab their All-Tournament Team honors," said Herman. "They were lights out today."

Evans finished seventh with 1,124 pins (224.8 average) with four efforts over 200 pins and a 289 in his final game.

Bryant Griffith averaged 224.0 pins across four games with efforts of 247, 235 and 221. Ethan Collier averaged 205.33 pins in three games with a high of 227. Jackson McRae (213) and Xander Stephens (201) both chipped in with single-game totals over 200.

"We are so deep that we have eight guys who have the talent to finish in the top-five each time we take the lanes."

Milligan's top junior varsity squad finished fourth in the 14-team JV standings. Aiden Bailey paced Milligan's JV with a 23rd-place individual finish with 1,051 pins (210.2 average). Caleb McDonald was 37th (201.6 average) and Jameson Whaley finished 39th (201.2 average).

Milligan returns to action tomorrow in Kentucky at the MSC Thomas Burris Memorial.