STRATFORD, N.J.--The Adrian College Bulldogs recently completed the 2016 United States Bowling Congress Collegiate Sectional Championships in 12th place out of 15 teams.

Adrian made the cut and was ranked high enough to compete in the Sectionals. This is where you bowl 64 baker games to make the cut among the top four teams to bowl in Nationals. There are four sectionals in the nation, making the top 16 teams out of these four tournaments to compete for the national title.

On Friday, the teams bowled in the singles event where they take the top-4 women. This is a separate tournament from the team event with all of the baker games. The Bulldogs bowled six games and the top student-athletes would go to Nationals to compete in singles championships. 

Adrian had one bowler finish in the top 50 for singles. Sophomore Jennifer Kelly grinded the day out and finished with a score of 1,110, an average of 185.

"We didn't have many women find the shot early on the scores were fairly high, so once you were in a hole it was hard to get out of," said first-year Adrian coach John Essenmacher III. "We would have wanted all our girls to bowl great but sometimes you just have a bad tournament. We just have to move on and get better."

The women's team finished with a score of 10,767.

"We just never got any momentum. This was a weekend where you needed to start off strong and we just couldn't find the right line. The hardest part is not being able to finish better for the seniors who have dedicated so much to the team over the past four years," Essenmacher pointed out.

McKendree College won the team title with a grand total of 12,463 pins.

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