COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Saturday's season-opening competition for the women's bowling program proved to be a success as the Shawnee State women's bowling program got a fifth-place finish from a team standpoint on the varsity side while the junior varsity program won its JV bracket in the DO Apparel-Brunswick Collegiate Open, which was held at the Columbus Square Bowling Palace in Columbus, Ohio.

Shawnee State, who knocked down 4,370 pins, placed fifth, posting Baker scores above 170 five times in the match and securing five top-30 as well as eight finishers in the top 36 overall in the 82-player field.

The Bears were led by Onesti Evans, who posted a three-game 502 and posted scores of 177 and 176 in Games 1 and 3 en route to collecting a 15th place finish in the field. Freshman Kaylee Randolph also acquitted herself well in her first showing, securing a 19th place finish and posting a Game 3 mark of 183 to put two Bears in the top-20 overall.

Morgan Higgins, Coryn Darling and Maria Mara all finished in the top-30, with Higgins' 184 in Game 3, Darling's 182 in Game 1 and a team-best 212 by Mara in Game 1 helping the trio claim 23rd, 24th and 30th place showings in the field.

Three additional players led the Shawnee State JV squad as Jackie Aubry dropped 192 pins in Game 3, leading the senior to a 31st place finish while Bailey Mitchell's 172 in Game 1 allowed Mitchell to place 32nd. McKenna Roades' 175 in Game 3 led to a 36th place showing.

Hannah Chandler and Cali Baird finished 47th and 49th individually.

Varsity-wise, Shawnee State eclipsed the 170-pin mark five times in Baker competition, dropping 4,370 pins in all on the day. The Bears bettered Capital, Ohio State and Tiffin en route to its fifth-place showing as a group. 

JV-wise, Shawnee State was the only junior varsity squad to eclipse the 2,000-pin mark from individual scores, and after dropping a Baker game best of 210, ended up with 3,836 pins total, 288 more than the next-best JV unit in the field, Capital. In the playoff bracket, Shawnee State received an automatic bye to the semifinals as the top team in regulation play, and ultimately faced off against Capital again in the DO Apparel-Brunswick Collegiate Open JV Championship Round, where the Bears bested the Comets, 2-1 (163-133, 138-168, 137-116) to win the title.

Members of the Shawnee State JV team are as follows:

Jackie Aubry, Cali Baird, Hannah Chandler, Bailey Mitchell, McKenna Roades.
The Shawnee State women's bowling team, along with the men'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.