Bowling team wins second straight national championship

Cards fourth team to win back-to-back Intercollegiate Team Championship

April 23, 2007 —

The SVSU men's bowling team went to Wichita, Kansas with the confidence of a defending national champion. The Cardinals left with the excitement of a back-to-back champion.

Led by tournament MVP Dan MacLelland, SVSU became just the fourth school to win back-to-back United States Bowling Congress Intercollegiate Team Championships on Saturday, defeating Robert Morris University 2-0 in the best-of-three championship match.

"This is a great accomplishment," said MacLelland, the team's sophomore anchor who has started his collegiate career with two national titles.

After qualifying fourth in the 16-team tournament, the Cardinals breezed through the early rounds, beating the University of Nebraska and then William Paterson University 4-1 each.

MacLelland said he and his teammates had a good feeling about their chances after their victory over Nebraska.

"I looked at [teammates] J.R. [Raymond] and Jason Howard, and we had the feeling that we were the only ones striking," said MacLelland, who added that the team's intensity picked up after losing the first game to William Paterson.

In the semifinals, SVSU met up with UC-Davis, which gave the Cards their toughest match. The Aggies qualified last in the tournament but took out top-ranked Wichita State in the first round of the double-elimination tournament and again in the finals of the "Contenders Bracket."

Because the Aggies were coming out of the "Contenders Bracket," they had to beat the Cardinals twice to advance. They pulled out a 4-3 victory over the Cardinals in the first match, but MacLelland and his teammates adjusted and took the second match 4-1.

"We came in to the second match with a different game plan," MacLelland explained. "Instead of taking a lot of practice shots before the second match, we concentrated on burning a better line, or making a spot more dry, on the lane."

Robert Morris came in as the seventh seed in the tournament and gave the Cardinals a competitive first game in the championship match. Colonials' anchor Jason Wunderlich had an opportunity to put his team up 1-0 in the 10th, but, needing to strike on his first two balls, he crossed over and left the 5-9, giving the Cards a 222-212 win.

The Cards took advantage of an early string of three strikes to take over the second game and win going away, 189-157, to grab the championship.

MacLelland and his teammates, Greg Kuehnl, Toby Sidle, Howard, and Raymond, are the first team to repeat as champions since Western Illinois in 2002.

The Cardinals, who won 13 out of the 19 contests they entered this year, will return three of their top six bowlers next year: MacLelland, Sidle, and Raymond.

"We have a couple good bowlers coming in next year, too" said MacLelland, who plans to work on improving over the summer. "A three-peat is very possible."