RedTails, Tritons pick up Men's and Women's National Championships
Complete Results - Men & Women
The ICCAC nearly swept the NJCAA Men's and Women's Bowling Championships in Lansing, Michigan last week. The Iowa Central women's team won their second consecutive team title with a comeback on day thre after sitting in second place heading into the final day. The Tritons took the top spot with a grand total of 12255 pins, 101 pins ahead of second place Barton (Kan.).
Iowa Western also had a solid tournament and took home some hardware with the third-place trophy, the Reivers racked up 11808 total pins throughout the three-day tournament.
Iowa Central was able to claim the title because of how well they performed as individuals. While they didn't have an individual champ, members of the Tritons finished in third (Allison Christenson), fourth (Korissa Johnson), and seventh place (Madison Ross). The Tritons had a top three finisher in singles, doubles, and all-events categories. All three earned All-American status.
Leading the way for the champs was freshman Johnson, who finished third in the all-events championship and fourth in the singles championship. Johnson and her doubles partner Hannah Waldren finished third in the double's championship.
Other top performers was Iowa Western's Shalee Bradley. Bradley finished fifth in singles and seventh in all-events, earning her NJCAA All-American status for the second-straight year. Teammate Marissa Kearin joined Bradley as an All-American.
Natalie Leach from Hawkeye was also an All-American. She finished sixth in singles, with a high-game of 235 and was the runner-up in the all-events, 29 pins behind first place.
Six of the eight NJCAA All-Americans came from the ICCAC.
Hawkeye was able to capture the 2021 NJCAA Men's Championship in just their second year of competition. The ICCAC dominated the team standings as the schools competing for the conference took the top three spots with Iowa Central coming in second and Iowa Western third. Hawkeye scored 12780 pins and only won the title by 27 pins. In fact, things were so tight up top that the number of pins between first and third was 63, compared to a 277-pin difference between third and fourth.
Leading the way for Hawkeye was Brandon Birch. The sophomore finished third in the singles with 664 pins and his 2382 pins was good enough for fourth in the all-events championship. Cory LaBarge did his job in the singles championship as he was Hawkeye's leader with 675 pins and finished second.
Ian Tibbutt was sixth in all-events for Hawkeye earning All-American honors.
Familiar name in ICCAC bowling, Iowa Central's Ray Wiegand finished fifth in all-events, which earned him his second-straight year of All-American status. He finished third in 2020.
Rounding out the 2021 All-American from the ICCAC was John Hemmington from Iowa Western. The freshman was 13th in singles and seventh in all-events with a high-game of 235.