ADDISON, Ill. — The University of Pikeville men's bowling team earned a fourth-place finish at the NAIABCA Fall Invite on Sunday, October 18, highlighted by a first-place performance in the second qualifying event and a pair of competitive matchups in the Mega Matches bracket.
The Bears opened the event with a sixth-place finish in Invite 1's traditional team games before claiming the top spot in Invite 2's Baker games. UPIKE entered the Mega Matches as the No. 3 seed and ultimately finished fourth among 17 varsity programs.
Invite 1: Team Games
UPIKE opened competition in the first qualifying event with a sixth-place finish, totaling 5,023 pins across five team games. The Bears finished just 47 pins behind fifth-place Aquinas College, while Spring Arbor University claimed the top spot with 5,399 pins.
Andrew Robitaille led UPIKE in the individual standings, placing 19th with 1,043 pins and a five-game average of 208.6. Robitaille's strongest performance came in the fourth game, when he rolled a 269.
Brody Cartier followed in 25th place with 1,017 pins and a 203.4 average. Cartier also saved his best game for the fourth round, recording a 246.
Joshua Maslanich delivered one of the day's most memorable individual performances, rolling a perfect 300 in his third game. Maslanich averaged 238.75 across four games, finishing with 955 total pins.
Ethan Ackermann added 551 pins across three games, averaging 183.67. Moustafa El-Sayed totaled 371 pins in two games for an average of 185.5, while Deion Ahmed recorded 368 pins across two games, averaging 184. Ryan Marszalek and Boston Reynolds also competed in two games apiece, averaging 180.5 and 178.5, respectively.
Invite 2: Baker Games
The Bears responded in the second qualifying event, capturing first place in the Baker games with a team total of 5,258 pins.
UPIKE edged Webber International University by just 10 pins to claim the top spot. Webber International finished second with 5,248 pins, while Spring Arbor University and Savannah College of Art and Design-Savannah tied for third with 5,209 pins apiece.
The first-place finish marked a significant improvement from the Bears' sixth-place result in Invite 1 and secured UPIKE a strong position heading into the Mega Matches.
Mega Matches
UPIKE entered the bracket as the No. 3 seed based on the standings from the first two qualifying events, opening against No. 2 seed Savannah College of Art and Design-Savannah (SCAD).
The Bears narrowly dropped the opening team game, 1,039-1,037, before answering with a dominant performance in the first five-game Baker set. UPIKE outscored SCAD 943-814 to even the matchup and force a deciding round of Baker games.
The final round featured a back-and-forth battle between the two programs. UPIKE opened with a 257-247 victory before SCAD responded with a 278-206 win. SCAD then took the third game, 263-224, putting the Bears in a difficult position.
UPIKE kept its hopes alive with a 248-206 victory in the fourth game, forcing the matchup to the final game. SCAD ultimately secured the head-to-head win with a 225-200 result, sending the Bears to the third-place match against No. 4 seed Indiana Institute of Technology.
In the matchup against Indiana Tech, UPIKE recorded 1,033 pins in the opening team game. The Bears rebounded in the first Baker set, winning four games with scores of 194, 170, 173 and 204 to take the round.
Indiana Tech answered in the final Baker set, winning the deciding round in four games. UPIKE recorded scores of 217, 155, 196 and 195 as the Bears fell in the third-place match to finish fourth overall.
UPIKE's fourth-place finish capped a strong weekend at the NAIABCA Fall Invite, featuring a top-six finish in traditional team games, a championship performance in the Baker games and a competitive run through the Mega Matches bracket against some of the top programs in the field.
The Bears will return to action Oct. 24-25 at the Lynne Jordan / Brandon Burns Memorial Tournaments in Smyrna, Tennessee, hosted by the Mid-South Conference.
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