Men’s Bowling places second at NAIA Southeastern Open Sunday

LILBURN, Ga. (February 4, 2024) – The Milligan University men's bowling team continued its ascent in the 2023-24 season with a runner-up team finish at NAIA Southeastern Open Sunday at Bowlero Lilburn.

The second place showing marks Milligan's fourth top-three tournament finish and ninth-straight top-half placement.

The tournament followed the same format as Saturday with three team games and 20 baker games. Milligan finished with 6,855 total pins to finish second to Webber International. The No. 8 Buffs knocked off a slew of highly-rated NAIA competition as Milligan finished ahead of No. 1 SCAD Savannah, No. 4 Pikeville and No. 6 Tennessee Wesleyan.

"Today's pattern ended up being much shorter in length and favored the left-handers tremendously considering every All-Tournament bowler was a lefty," said head coach Brian Rickert. "Both Bryant and Josh were able to put up big games to push us into the top two after the team games. Even though we struggled a little with the oil transition, all the other teams struggled as well and we were able to hold on to another second place finish ahead of some of the top teams in the country."

Bryant Griffith, Joshua Collins and Nate Trentler finished fourth, fifth and sixth in the individual standings. Griffith had a three-game series of 215, 255 and 216 to finish with 686 pins (228.67 average). Collins joined Griffith on the all-tournament team with 670 pins (223.33) and a high game of 257. Trentler exceeded 200 pins in all three games with a high of 256 to finish with 659 pins (219.67 average).

Alex Evans used a game two 232 to finish 17th with 619 pins (206.33 average).

Xander Stephens led Milligan's junior varsity with a 16th-place individual finish. He knocked down 620 pins (206.67 average) and Aiden Bailey followed in 24th with a 195.0 average (585 pins). Caleb McDonald was 27th at 576 pins (192.0 average). Milligan's top JV squad finished fourth of eight games with 6,265 pins.

"I couldn't be more proud of our JV teams as they wrap up a successful season," said Rickert. "They've made tremendous strides in their game and have pushed the varsity in practice. Huge contributions from Aiden Bailey, Xander Stephens and Caleb McDonald on the varsity squad at periodic times throughout the year."

Milligan heads to Indianapolis for the Tier 1 Columbia 300 Hoosier Classic next weekend.