WICHITA, Kan. -- First contested in 1975, the Intercollegiate Team Championships (ITC) bring together the top 16 men's and top 16 women's bowling teams in the nation to compete for national titles, and for the second straight year, the University of Pikeville men and women are part of the field.

Qualifying for match play begins at 9:45 a.m. ET on Thursday with six four-game Baker matches which will be streamed live on BowlTV.

Once those scores are in, teams will be seeded one through 16 and the first round of match play will get started at 5:45 p.m.

Each round of the double-elimination event will be a best-of-seven Baker series up until the finals when it becomes best-of-three.

This is the seventh time in school history that the UPIKE men and women are competing in the ITCs in the same season. When they pulled off the same feat last year, it was the first such occurrence since 2011.

UPIKE has qualified for every Women's ITC since the program began in 2001, making this its 16th straight appearance under head coach Ron Damron. Pikeville has won the championship twice, in 2004 and 2008.

The men, under the direction of head coach Kyle Wilson, are making their seventh overall appearance at the event and second in the last five seasons.

KT Simpson started the Bears off early with awards as she was named a Second Team All-American by the National Collegiate Bowling Coaches Association at the annual banquet on Wednesday. The honor is Simpson's third straight All-American nod, starting with an honorable mention in 2014, first-team selection in 2015 and this year's second-team honor.

-UPIKE-