LIMA, Ohio - The women's bowling team despite putting up the highest team average over the last two seasons finished fourth in the Racers Classic over the weekend. Sophomore Chelsea Essenmacher had her best tournament so far this season averaging a 191 for seven games. She finished fifth overall making the All-Tournament team. Freshman Nicole Loomis and junior Shannon McKowen also bowled well on day one averaging 189 and 186 over three games. McKowen also rolled a 245 breaking the old single-game record that Jessica Shovan set last year.
After day one the team was in third place and tried to maintain that during baker games in order to make the TV finals. However, the team couldn't carry and missed some critical spares to finish fourth out of six teams. "The team was definitely frustrated," said head coach Jody Fetterhoff. "We threw great shots and got some unfortunate breaks. When you have an oil pattern designed for bowlers to put up higher scores, the focus is on which team can strike the most and we just didn't strike enough."
Adrian College is currently ranked ninth in the nation according to collegebowling.com (http://www.collegebowling.com/rankings/pwrrank.asp?PwrRank=2011F041) and while last weekend will drop them a little in the rankings, the team looks to rebound and have a strong showing in the next two conference events on November 5 and 6 in Wickliffe, Ohio.
The team will have next weekend off and will be spending their Saturday handing out candy to the kids participating in Lenawee Rec's Bowl & Treat. Later in the day, the team will be honored before the football game for winning the Pathways to Excellence Award for the second year in a row. The award is given to the team that has the most improved team GPA from the previous year. The team raised their overall GPA by an outstanding .33 points.
"The girls work really hard in the classroom so to win this award again, just shows their dedication to academics," said Fetterhoff. "The team would like to thank the donors for the award, Curt and Margret Schaffer."
