LINCOLN, Neb. – Two players were honored with All-American status and their coach was named the best in his profession again.
 
This took place at the Night of Champions banquet held at the Holiday Inn on the eve of the 2012 USBC Intercollegiate Team Championships on Wednesday night.
 
Ron Damron, the only coach in the history of the University of Pikeville women's bowling program, was named the Kerm Helmer National Coach of the Year by the National Collegiate Bowling Coaches Association (NCBCA).
 
For Damron, it is the third time he has taken the honor, presented by the coaches to one of their own. He also claimed the award in 2004 en route to leading the Bears to the first national championship in school history. He was also named the top coach two years ago.
 
Kim Yioulos was named first-team All-American by the NCBCA and was named runner-up for National Bowler of the Year by the bowling writers, its equivalent of first-team All-American.
 
It is the third consecutive season she has been honored by both organizations.
 
Yioulos, the two-time NAIA Bowler of the Year, is a senior from Rochester, N.Y. She competed in 10 tournaments this season and was the individual champion in three of them. She was the only NAIA bowler to win three tournaments this year and one of only three in the country to do so.
 
Yioulos rolled an average of 222.833 to win Pikeville's own Orange & Black Classic. She then won the Las Vegas Invitational in December with an average of 214.667 and followed that up after Christmas with a win in the Nittany Lion Kegler by averaging 210.6.
 
For the season she averaged 201.3, which led all NAIA bowlers this season and was fourth in all of college bowling.
 
In the other measurement of individual success, Yioulos also was the NAIA leader with a differential – the difference between her average and that of the entire field of a tournament – of 30.64. That was good for fifth nationally this season.
 
Brandi Hensley was named to the honorable-mention list by the NCBCA.
 
Hensley, who was named NAIA First-Team All-American last month, is a junior from Corpus Christi, Texas. She won the Striking Knights Invitational in November with an average of 225.8.
 
Her average of 195.42 was fourth among NAIA bowlers and 11^th overall, while her differential was 25.546, fifth best among NAIA competition and 13^th overall.
 
 
 
-UPIKE-