COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The men's bowling program, led by a strong top-10 showing from
Blake Landers and four top-30 individual efforts overall, put together a solid showing to begin the 2025-26 season as Shawnee State's varsity squad placed sixth overall in a 12-team varsity field while the SSU JV unit at the DO Apparel-Brunswick Collegiate Open Saturday at Columbus Square Bowling Palace in Columbus, Ohio.
Landers, who placed sixth overall in the 132-bowler field, posted arguably his best career performance in the event, dropping 224, 246 and 214 pins, respectively, in Games 1 through 3 to post a three-game average of 228 -- the fourth-highest average among all Ohio Bowling Conference (OBC) representatives and the highest average among all schools who compete in the Mid-South Conference. Landers dropped 684 pins in all.
Behind Landers,
Graham Copley,
Jaylen Sumler and
Zach Ison all enjoyed strong performances of their own, as the trio nabbed 623, 610 and 608 pins through their own three-game efforts.
Copley, who finished 23rd overall in his first-ever collegiate appearance as a men's bowler, posted a strong 207.7 average by dropping 234, 198 and 191 pins from Games 1 through 3, while Sumler dropped 195, 224 and 191 pins in Games 1 through 3 to finish 26th. Ison collected a 225 in Game 2 and a 210 in Game 3 to finish with a bang -- and move to 28th spot on the board.
Logan Hughes, who competed for Shawnee State's junior varsity squad Saturday, had the best performance of the remaining bowlers, finishing 44th after posting a three-game average of 188. Hughes canned 187 pins in Game 1 and 224 pins in Game 2.
Isaac Halter (64th),
Ashton Heckman (65th),
Andrew Tomko (72nd),
Frank Bullins (107th),
Maxwell Giller (113th),
Robert Surritt (122nd),
Seth Thompson (123rd) and
Jason Price (124th) rounded out the men's bowling squad's efforts from an individual standpoint.
In Baker games, the Shawnee State varsity bowling squad posted the best Baker scores in Games 2 (247), 6 (224) and 8 (207), while the SSU JV squad nabbed the best Baker score among all JV teams in Game 7 (217).
ADDITIONAL:
The Shawnee State men's bowling team, along with the women's bowling program, will be back in action in a month's time when the Bears head back to Columbus for the Ohio Bowling Conference's Event No. 1, which will take place Saturday, Oct. 18.
