by Maren Ewertz–Many students on campus are aware that Morningside University has a bowling team, but not many understand how it works. For the bowlers at Morningside, tournament setups are simplistic; but to everyone else, they can get complicated.
In order to participate in the actual tournament, the school — in this case Morningside — has to be of NAIA or NCAA level. As an NAIA school, Morningside has the ability to participate in both NAIA and NCAA tournaments. However, an NCAA school like Stephen F Austin State University in Texas can only compete at NCAA tournaments.
The typical weekend for a Morningside bowler consists of leaving at some point on Friday and getting back to campus late Sunday night. Carissa Johnson is a senior on the varsity women’s team. She had her last normal tournament in Kansas during the month of February. Asked why she stayed with Morningside bowling and how it has impacted her life, she said, “I love my teammates and I’m sad to be leaving. My best friend Rachel will graduate next year, so I’ll still be supporting the team!”
Morningside bowlers have practice Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays all school year with a majority of their tournaments being in the Fall semester. Practices last at least an hour and a half each day all the way up to being there for all four hours, so bowling for Morningside is time consuming. Johnson said her favorite part of these tournaments is bakers. According to Johnson, “bakers is when the team gets together the most and we have such a strong support for each other.”
Singles or individuals is how it sounds. Five people from each NAIA or NCAA school will bowl around four to six games on Saturday. Then bakers comes into play. Bakers is when the team has one person doing frames 1 & 6, another 2 & 7, 3 & 8, 4 & 9, and 5 & 10. Usually bakers games go by faster as the whole team is working together more than they typically do for individuals.
On Sunday there is usually a prize for the All–Tournament Team for both the men and women who did best on Saturday. This can be something as small as a piece of congratulations paper to a water bottle to a trophy. The top five bowlers from both the men’s and women’s sides get this prize.
Morningside can usually be found in Las Vegas right before Christmas for both the Collegiate Shootout and the Glenn Carlson Invitational. Both tournaments are NCAA, but Morningside has historically placed well. In 2023, Morningside finished in 11th place for the Glenn Carlson Invitational and 14th for the 2023 Collegiate Shootout. Placing well here usually solidifies the placement for them in sectionals.
Sectionals this year were in Dallas, Texas. Just as Vegas is a challenging tournament, Dallas is their other main tournament. Sectionals will consist of at least one day of individuals and likely a few days of bakers. Typically the bowlers won’t know the schedule until they are driving — or flying — to their respective locations. In 2024, Dallas will likely consist of 5 individual games and many more baker games than their usual tournaments.
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