By BRANDON SMITH
Barton Sports Info
Competing for the first time in over two-months, the Barton Community College women's bowling team opened the 2024 portion of the season with hardware following its' third place and runner-up finishes at the SWIBC V and SWIBC VI held this past weekend at the Plano Super Bowl in Plano, TX.
Entered as the lone two-year program, the Cougars opened the weekend with a third place outing in the SWIBC V consisting of five team games and 10 baker rounds for a 5,989-pin count. Returning 12-hours later for Sunday's SWIBC VI which featured seven individual games, Barton bettered their placing with a runner-up finish destroying 6,308 pins edging out third place Texas A&M University's 5,888.
Claiming the team title both days was Division I powerhouse Wichita State University carding team scores of 7,295 and 7,597.
SWIBC V
Chailyn Scott guided the Cougars individually turning in the 8th best score in the 46-participant field knocking down 992 pins. Averaging a team best 198.4 single game score over her five rolled games, the freshman tallied the highest game on the squad with a fifth round 232 following her fourth game 218.
Joining Scott inside the top-10 was Jasmine Bridges' 10th place 904 pin count as the freshman turned in a pair of 200-plus games with an opening 213 and fourth game 204 total for a 180.8 average.
Fielding a second team, Barton's junior varsity group fabricated a pair of top-20 performances led by Charlee Bitler's 17th placing 838 pin accumulation and Cassidy Eschliman's 19th best total of 824.
Olivia Oliver's 25th finish of 775 led a five pack of Cougars with Morgan Kolanek 26th (767), Allyson Heidenreich 27th (753), Jaden Rabe 28th (746) and Alexandra Coykendall's 29th (744).
SWIBC VI
Rolling the same lineup out for Sunday's SWIBC VI, Oliver paced Barton earning a 9th place performance destroying 1,412 pins over seven rolled games. Averaging 201.7 per 10-frames, Oliver topped the 200-mark in three of her seven games tossed with scores of 224, 222 and 221.
Heidenreich rounded out the Cougars' top-10 placings with the 10th highest pin mark 1,325. The sophomore posted a pair of 200-plus scores tying Oliver for the Cougars highest individual 224 game.
For the second consecutive day, Bridges finished inside the top-15 bookending the 13th highest pin accumulation of 1,299 for Barton's lone top-15 placer over the two days of competition.
Concluding her home state return, Kolanek powered the Cougars JV team with a 17th place 1,199 seven game total besting her prior day finish by nine spots.
Cassidy Goans made the biggest improvement for the JV squad finishing 13-spots higher earning a 22nd placing with a pin count 1,143.
The Cougars will have a week off before traveling east for the Wildcat Challenge held February 3rd-4th at the Royal Crest Lanes in Lawrence, KS.