Bowling ITC’s: What You Need to Know to Follow the Bears

BATON ROUGE, La. -- For the eighth time in the history of the programs, both the University of Pikeville men's and women's bowling teams will compete for Intercollegiate Team Championships in the same season when the event kicks off on Thursday morning with qualifying at the Raising Cane's River Center Arena.

Here's everything you need to know about the ITC's, including UPIKE's history at the event and how to follow the Bears all week long.

Women's Bowling Continues Streak

Since starting women's bowling at Pikeville for the 2001-02 season, the Bears have advanced to the ITC's every year. The first 15 trips came under former head coach Ron Damon who retired last summer as this is the first trip with Pikeville for new head man Bobby Brown. Brown previously coached the Morehead State men whom he led to the ITCs 11 times.

UPIKE has won the ITC two times, first in 2004 and most recently in 2008. Both times it beat Wichita State (Kan.) in the finals.

Qualifying for the event is no easy task in itself as qualifying teams are grouped into four, 16-team sectionals across the nation. From there, the top four teams from each sectional make up the ITC field in Baton Rouge.

Men's Bowling Hoping 8th Time's a Charm

The UPIKE men are making their eighth trip overall to the ITCs, including three straight since 2015. In the program's history, its best finish is eighth twice in 2008 and 2009. Last year the Bears qualified as the No. 5 seed, but won just one match before being eliminated in the contender's bracket.

How the ITC's are Played

The entire ITC process, including sectionals and the team championships, are played using the Baker format. In that style, individual players combine to create one team score. The first bowler will take frames one and five, bowler two takes two and six, and so on. The fifth bowler, known as the anchor, handles the fifth and final 10th frame.

The event starts with qualifying in which all 16 teams bowl 24 games starting at 9:30 a.m. ET on Thursday. After those games are played, the teams are seeded one through 16 based on their score. From there, it turns into a match-play, double-elimination bracket.

All matchups are played best of 7, up until Saturday's finals when it turns into a best-of-3 showdown to be aired on TV at a later date on the CBS Sports Network.

How to Follow the Action

There are a few ways to keep up with Bears, including a live stream on Bowl TV through the USBC. However, with the spread out nature of the event, UPIKE will only be shown at select times. A schedule of what lanes will be shown should be available on the YouTube channel.

Bowl.com also updates results on a regular basis, including throughout qualifying and during each match. And the @UPIKEAthletics twitter account will be posting live results, photos and videos throughout the week.

Links for all of these services are available at the stop of this preview.

-UPIKE-

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