The Saint

Story by Sports Editor Alex Rodriguez and Chief Editor Mark Musgrave III

This year’s Men and Women’s bowling teams have continued to develop under second year head coach Harold Klukowski. With the additions of two volunteer coaches to the thrice of coaches already hired, not even the 7-10 split stands in their way.

Starting this season, they took fifth place at their first matchup. They had started with a successful first tournament, had multiple members achieving the title of Saint of the Week, and snagged a top five and runner-up at the most recent tournament.

Opening their season, the Men’s and Women’s teams both competed at the Dirty Bird Classic held in Jackson, Michigan at the JAX 60. The Men had a total pin count of 6,578 to place in the top five. On the Women’s side, 5,764 was their pin total also placing them in the top five. Along with that, they had a top ten finisher individually, Freshman Kayla Van Linden.

Kayla was the first to achieve Saint of the Week after the first tournament. With her 7th place finish, averaging 182.67 after three matches, and knocking down a total of 548 pins! Next was Michael Deming who achieved Saint of the Week after the most recent Warrior Classic. He placed 2nd, averaging an impressive score of 229.25, and knocking down a total of 917 pins!

These #DirtySaints had a successful turnout at the Warrior Classic a few weeks ago. The Men’s team pulled off a 6th place finish after competing against 13 teams. They had 3 players with a top 10 placement, having scores all higher than 800. On the other end, the Women’s team had two Saints, placed within, the top twenty, knocking down a total of 746 and 680 pins. This led to them to a top five finish out of eleven teams in total.

Just this past weekend, the teams competed at the Midwest Collegiate Championships. Freshman Tony Deluccia IV, also known as “TDelicious,” shot a perfect 300 game! This being the third of his bowling career. You can view this final shot on the Aquinas Bowling Facebook Page, as well as all tournament live streams.

This team has started with successful first tournaments and has several more tournaments before the WHAC Championships in February. They have quite some time to grow as a team and individually so they can soon be taking home some top-placing victories, not just top five. With multiple Saints of the Week, we will also be excited to watch the rest of the team strike through the competition and claim a few WHAC players of the week!