COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The men's bowling program finished well inside the top half of a competitive field at the Ohio Bowling Conference's Event No. 1 Saturday in Columbus, as Shawnee State knocked down 5,018 pins to place eighth in a 20-team field in another respectable showing by Bryan Sturgell's squad.

Shawnee State was led during the weekend by three top-50 finishers of the 218 individual bowlers that recorded scores on Saturday, with Zach Ison's 34th place finish heading the group. Ison dropped 577 pins over his three-game series, posting 184, 214, and 179 pins from Games 1 through 3, respectively for a 192.3 average.

True freshman Graham Copley, who claimed a 42nd place finish, posted a three-game average of 188.7 pins -- dropping 213 and 191 pins in Games 2 and 3 respectively to fly up the leaderboard -- while Blake Landers, who posted marks of 191 and 203 in Games 1 and 3, collected an average of 187.3 pins to collect 47th on the chart.

Three additional bowlers finished between the 55th through 62nd positions -- as Andrew Tomko closed with marks of 184 and 209 in Games 2 and 3 to post an average of 184.3 pins and finish in 55th, while Logan Hughes, the top JV bowler for Shawnee State on the day, claimed 57th after finishing Games 2 and 3 with high pin numbers himself -- collecting 192 and 226 pins respectively. Jaylen Sumler, who knocked down 236 pins in Game 3, finished in the 62nd position.

Frank Bullins (82nd), Andy Schoener (95th), Isaac Halter (108th), Ashton Heckman (168th) and Maxwell Giller (210th) rounded out the competitors for the Bears in individual games.

Team-wise, Shawnee State's 5,018 pins edged out Wright State, Baldwin Wallace, Akron, Capital, Tiffin, Cincinnati, Mount Vernon Nazarene, Bethel (Ind.), Rio Grande, Wittenberg, Kentucky Christian and Edison State.

The men's and women's bowling programs at Shawnee State return to action next weekend in the Nashville, Tenn. metro area, competing in the Greater Nashville Open and the Brandon Burns Classic on Saturday, Oct. 25 and Sunday, Oct. 26, respectively.