INDIANAPOLIS -- The Notre Dame College varsity bowling teams traveled to Indianapolis this past weekend to bowl at the Hoosier Classic. This tournament is highly anticipated by the team because it is a final tournament tuneup before Sectionals and it is known for its challenging lane patterns, making it harder to score than some other tournaments. The women finished Sunday in ninth place, while the men took 41st.

This tournament did not disappoint in that respect, forcing players to get out of their comfort zones. The tournament was split up into five regular games on Saturday, followed by 15 baker team games on Sunday. This tournament always has a different lane pattern on the two days. The top-eight teams move on to match play after the baker games on Sunday.

Bowling on an even different lane oil patterns than the men, the women found success. On Saturday, senior Hannah Klein led the women with five games over 200, including an extraordinary 276, which led her to a 1,343 six game total – an average of 223 for the day. This not only led the team, but placed her 3rd among over 500 female bowlers. She was also a top-5 medalist in 2022 and, after some research was done, no Notre Dame student-athlete had ever been a medalist twice at the Hoosier Classic in the history of the bowling program. Only 14 other women bowlers have been a two-time medalist at the Classic over the last 22 years. Current men's PBA player Chris Via was a medalist for Notre Dame College in 2012, but came up short by 11 pins in 2014.

Also leading the team to a successful first day was junior Olivia Johnson, who rolled superb games of 244, 203 and 225 for a six game series of 1198, putting her just two pins short of averaging a solid 200 for the day. Super consistent junior Rachel Foreback had two excellent games of 216 and 212, which supported her 1,151 pinfall for the six games, a 192 average. Senior Sarah Benedict also rolled some nice games, including a 202 game. Freshmen Carly Jones struggled a bit to start the Saturday individual games part of the tournament, but came alive in game six with a nicely bowled 221 game. The Falcons finished the Individual games in 11th place out of 66 games, with a goal of making the top-10 or higher or to make the top eight bracket play.

On Sunday, the women started out their first five games slow, and even dropped to 15th at one point. But after the subpar start, they adjusted and bowled extremely consistent baker games in the last 10 games, including games of 190 or above in eight of the last ten games. They achieved their goal by finishing in 9th place, just short of match play by 49 pins.

The men finished 41st out of 78 teams, bowling against the best collegiate teams in the country. In the Individual games, Sophomore Alex Etheredge led the guys with a six game series of 1,226 averaging 204. Just behind him was senior Connor Gallagher, starting out with a fantastic game of 244 and a later game four of 253, which bolstered his average to 203 for the day. Sophomore Joshua Dohm had a consistent four game averaging 208 on the day, and shooting an excellent 233 game to finish his Saturday efforts. Other contributions were from freshmen Anthony Shields III, finishing on a high note of 247 and sophomore Matt Angell contributing a 217 to the cause. On Sunday, the men found the pattern to be extremely difficult and managed to bowl only one game over 200 in the Baker portion of the day.

The Falcons will compete at Sectionals, on March 9 and 10.