State College, PA- The Men's Bowling team won in both the Varsity and JV divisions this weekend at the Penn State Classic. The event was hosted by Penn State University, and the field consisted of eight men's varsity teams and three men's jv teams. It is the smallest event on the schedule for Robert Morris, so the expectations entering the weekend were high. Both teams won their respective fields, and it is the first time a RMU bowling team has placed first in a tournament since 2013.
Varsity-
The varsity guys came out firing on all cylinders and never looked back this weekend as the squads continued to shoot high all weekend. Of the 6 team games, the team exceed 1000 pins per team game in all but 1 game. A 1000 pin team game means each bowler's score averages out to a 200 or higher. Game 1 was a 1001, and Game 2 was a 1063.
Game 3 was near ludicrous levels of pin count, as the team threw an 1148. Jonathan Kleer's 266 led the way, assisted by Josh Marks' 248 and Antonio Willar's 235. Marks added a 244 and 256 in Games 4 and 5 which ended in team game totals of 1027 and 1035. A final game of 957 wrapped up Day 1 with the Colonials in the lead.
They didn't give it away in bakers either. Thirteen of the 20 baker games ended as a 200 or higher for RMU, including 7 games over 220. The tournament victory is the first win for RMU bowling since the 2012-13 season when they won the Shippensburg Classic. In the current bowling rankings, RMU sits 36th in the nation. And that is before this victory is added to their point total, so they're likely to be even higher soon.
JV-
Despite facing only two other opponents, that did not make the battle any less difficult. Rochester Institute of Technology were on the Colonials heels all weekend, not letting RMU get a comfortable lead. RMU struggled out the gate to an 816 in team game 1, carried by Cole Aloia's 216. He got some assistance from Bradley Kokan in game 2, with Cole's 212 and Kokan's 215 elevating RMU to a 911 series. They tacked on another 900+ with a 909 in Game 3. Four Colonials surpassed the 180 mark in that game.
RMU shot their highest team game in Game 4, with Brad Kokan's 226 pushing the total to 924. The last two games saw some help from the bench as neither of the two high scores in Games 5 or 6 were from bowlers who started the event. Ryan Myers threw a 190 in the 5th game, and Austin Trainor threw a 226 in the final team game. At the end of the team game portion of the event, RMU sat around 100 pins ahead of RIT.
While Robert Morris has traditionally struggled in the baker game aspect of tournaments, they rose to the occasion on Sunday. Scoring seven strikes in a row through the middle of the first baker game allowed RMU to throw a 242. This would be one of 7 baker games over 200 and one of 5 over 230. RIT made up ground overall in the bakers, but RMU closed it out to win by 34 pins. The JV guys finished the weekend with 9,058 pins in 6 team games and 20 baker games.
Final Individual Results:
Varsity-
Josh Marks- 6 Games Bowled- 1421 Total Pins- 236.83 AVG (All-Tournament Team)
Jonathan Kleer- 6 Games Bowled- 1329 Total Pins- 221.5 AVG (All-Tournament Team)
Kyle Wilkinson- 6 Games Bowled- 1218 Total Pins- 203 AVG
Antonio Willar- 6 Games Bowled- 1177 Total Pins- 196.16 AVG
Brendan Flanagan- 3 Games Bowled- 576 Total Pins- 192 AVG
Mike Barvinchak- 2 Games Bowled- 354 Total Pins- 177 AVG
Brenden Lampo- 1 Game Bowled- 154 Total Pins- 154 AVG
Collin Whiteman- N/A
JV-
Cole Aloia- 6 Games Bowled- 1175 Total Pins- 195.83 AVG
Bradley Kokan- 5 Games Bowled- 917 Total Pins- 183.4 AVG
Derek Hartle- 5 Games Bowled- 793 Total Pins- 158.6 AVG
Austin Trainor- 4 Games Bowled- 733 Total Pins- 183.25
Bradley Daniels- 4 Games Bowled- 663 Total Pins- 165.75 AVG
Ryan Myers- 3 Games Bowled- 496 Total Pins- 165.33 AVG
Colin Flanagan- 2 Games Bowled- 342 Total Pins- 171 AVG
Grant Egyed- 1 Game Bowled- 147 Total Pins- 147 AVG
Alexander Gagnon '21
Club Sport Information Director
