Topeka, Kan. - The Columbia College women's bowling team traveled to Topeka, Kansas to compete in the Jayhawk Collegiate Challenge over the weekend.  The talented 20-team field featured numerous national powerhouses in Wichita State University, Midland University, Hastings College, and Baker University among others.

Saturday's competition was comprised of six team games played on a challenging oil pattern.  Collegiate competition is played on sport compliant oil patterns, making it more difficult to hit the pocket and strike than on standard or recreational patterns.  Oil patterns are often compared with hazards on a golf course, however these are invisible on a bowling lane.   The Cougars navigated the challenging pattern well on Saturday, only having one of the six games under 800 and totaled 4,943 for the six-team game total.  Their score put them in 11^th place out of the 20-team field and within striking distance of eighth place, which was where they would need to be in order to advance them into the final round on Sunday.

Sunday started with 16 games of Baker style broken into four different four-game blocks.  At the start of the day, the Cougars were 64 pins behind the eighth place team.   After a strong first four-game set of 725, Columbia jumped into eighth position, 46 pins ahead of ninth.  They totaled 696 for their second four-game set, maintaining eighth position but seeing their lead dwindle to 26 pins.  They struggled a bit in their third set shooting 668.  Heading into their final set the lead over ninth place was down to a single pin.  After a slow start to their final set, the Cougars responded with their highest two game total of the day, shooting 221 and 180 to finish with a 721 set and hold onto the eighth position, qualifying them for bracket elimination match play.

The reward the Cougars got for battling into eighth position was facing the number one seed Wichita State, who dominated qualifying by leading the second seeded Midland University by almost 400 pins at the end of the baker games.  Columbia stayed close throughout most of the first game and the early portion of the second game, but Wichita State prevailed in both games, sweeping the Cougars 188-163 and 207-158 on their way to winning the tournament.  The Cougars ended up in a tie for fifth place.

"I am very proud of our ladies as they really stepped up their games this weekend to allow us to pass several very good teams to get into the final eight," said head coach Don Cope. "At the end of the fourth match of the baker games, I asked them to step up and give me four hundred pins in the last two games and they answered me with 401 pins to get us to the finals.  We went against one of the best in the country in Wichita State and although they out bowled us we have learned a lot and will be better prepared for the challenge in the future."

The bowling team looks to build on back-to-back top five finishes when they travel to Davenport, Iowa to compete in the 2018 Leatherneck Classic on November 10 and 11.