Flames hold on to 10th place at opening tournament
ROCKFORD, Ill. – The College of Saint Mary bowling team had a rocky start to Baker games Sunday morning, but the Flames shook off the jitters and bowled much better the rest of the way.
CSM finished with 6,004 total pins in the Hammer Golden Eagle Invite. The Flames had 3,634 after the opening day of team games.
Judson University won the tournament with a two-day total of 7,670. Calumet College of St. Joseph moved up into second place with 7,110 and St. Ambrose University took third with 7,043.
CSM's scores for the 16 Baker games were 107, 179, 154, 134, 141, 181, 117, 135, 140, 168, 124, 153, 151, 208, 133 and 145.
"We set goals for the day to maintain 150 games and to move up a place or two in the standings," CSM Coach Corrinne Johnson said. "We started off slow with our lowest game of the day with a 107. I believe it was just jitters. We came back in the second game with a 179.
"For the most part we bowled consistently through the day ending with an average of 148 for all 16 Baker games. In our last set we fired off a 208 in game 14 which helped our total. In the end we stayed in 10th place, however we did gain on ninth and eighth place. We were just out of eighth by 23 pins – just two marks would have given us eighth in the standings. We missed a lot of makeable spares which is something we will work on."
It was CSM's first tournament of the year and helped show Coach Johnson what her squad needs to focus on in the upcoming weeks.
"The first tournament of the season was a success," she said. "I feel the freshmen know what to expect next tournament and we have two weeks of practice to fine tune some things."
The Flames return to competition Oct. 11-12 at the MIBC #1 – Big Ole Open in Alexandria, Minn.