The Grand Canyon University Men's Bowling team traveled to Fresno, California over the weekend for their first pair of United States Bowling Congress tournaments of the season, finishing third and first overall in the West Coast Collegiate Championships I and II, respectively.
West Coast Collegiate Championships I
Teams were seeded by total pinfall after the 32 games into a bracket of 12, one that the Lopes found themselves atop. GCU's first seed allowed them a first-round bye in the bracket that was formatted in a three-game, total pinfall style. In the round of eight, the Lopes defeated the University of Nevada Las Vegas before falling to the University of California-Davis in the semifinals. The third-place finish still allowed the Lopes to secure first-place points in the USBC rankings - due to GCU's total pinfall number of 7408.
GCU captain Josh Molloy finished first individually with 966 total pins dropped.
"It was a great start for our weekend, but it was also good that we got pushed by another talented team early," said GCU Head Coach Ben Canfield. "It made us come back stronger the next day."
West Coast Collegiate Championships II
Each match was worth one point, and the team with the most points at the end of the 12 matches walked away with the top rank. San Jose State University quickly jumped out to a lead - thanks to a hot start, but GCU hung in and caught them at the end of game 35, earning the first-place ranking by 13 pins and finishing as the top seed. The 12th and final game was a positional match between top-ranked GCU and second-ranked Arizona State University, which the Lopes won to remain undefeated on the day.
GCU sophomore Alex Hartman finished third (for the second day in a row) with 663 total pins dropped.
"Our guys responded really well this weekend," said Canfield. "Some of our newer bowlers stepped up in big ways, and I'm excited to see what they do for the rest of the season."
