Bowling Opens up 2019 Competition at Mid-Winter Invitational

Friday, January 11

Jonesboro, Ark.

All Day

Stephen F. Austin

Mid-Winter Classic

Bowling Opens up 2019 Competition at Mid-Winter Invitational

1/10/2019 4:44:00 PM | Women's Bowling

Ladyjacks return to the lanes for competition for the first time in two months, take on 20-team field featuring 11 nationally-ranked programs

By: Luke Bolanos | Assistant Director of Athletic Media Relations

Live Stream

NACOGDOCHES, Texas – For the first time in 2019, the SFA bowling team will be competing on the lanes as the Ladyjacks embark on their lone journey to the Natural State this season. SFA will bowl at the Mid-Winter Invitational Friday-Sunday, Jan. 11-13, held at the Jonesboro Bowling Center inside the Hijinx Family Entertainment Center in Jonesboro, Arkansas.

Hosted by Arkansas State, the Mid-Winter Invitational features a 20-team field with 11 nationally-ranked programs in attendance. Seven of the Southland Bowling League's eight teams will converge in Jonesboro with six of those programs ranked among the nation's top 25. The Ladyjacks, who are ranked 10th in the latest National Tenpin Coaches Association (NTCA) Top-25 poll, will be joined by fellow SBL members No. 3 Vanderbilt, the fourth-ranked Red Wolves, No. 5 Sam Houston State, sixth-ranked Tulane, No. 14 Louisiana Tech and Valparaiso.

The top two teams in the country will be competing inside the Hijinx Family Entertainment Center with top-ranked McKendree and No. 2 Nebraska being accompanied by 15th-ranked Lincoln Memorial, No. 20 UAB and 22nd-ranked Maryville University. Jackson State, Texas Southern, Central Missouri, Alabama State, Drury University, Grambling State, Kentucky Wesleyan and Alabama A&M round out the tournament's field.

The three-day event will get started Friday, Jan. 11 at 11:20 a.m. with five, five-game Baker matches, followed by five traditional team matches starting at 9:40 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 12. The 2019 Mid-Winter Invitational champion will be crowned Sunday, Jan. 13 following three rounds of best 4-of-7 bracket play Baker matches, which are set to begin at 8:30 a.m. Sunday's bracket play seeding will be determined by teams' pinfall total through Friday and Saturday's Baker and traditional team matches.

SFA at the Mid-Winter Invitational
This weekend marks the 10th consecutive year SFA has competed at the Mid-Winter as the Ladyjacks have participated in the tournament every year since the inception of the program in 2009. SFA's best finish at the event came in 2017 when the Ladyjacks placed fourth out of 17 teams, despite posting a 6-7 match record. A year ago, SFA went 8-5 in Jonesboro and accumulated 13,540 total pins en route to a seventh-place showing among a 20-team tournament field.

Last Time on the Lanes
The Ladyjacks bowled in three events during the shorter fall season, claiming a runner-up finish at the Allstate Sugar Bowl Collegiate Invitational (Oct. 19-21) to kick off the 2018-19 campaign and turning in back-to-back sixth-place finishes at the Track Kat Klash (Nov. 2-4) and Wisconsin-Whitewater Warhawk Classic (Nov. 9-11). Posting a 21-18 match record and knocking down 38,546 total pins, SFA earned match wins over nationally-ranked opposition 11 times this past fall. Most recently, the Ladyjacks went 7-6 with a pinfall total of 12,712 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, taking home sixth place among 18 teams. Seniors Paige Beeney and Dakotah Hazlewood have both led SFA through the first three tournaments of 2018-19 as Beeney owns a game pinfall average of 204.8 and Hazlewood a 197.0. Combined the two have accounted for 15 of the Ladyjacks' 30 200-pin individual games, while sophomore Sarah Gill has averaged 203.63 pins per traditional team game and bowled a team and career-high 259 in SFA's match win over fifth-ranked Arkansas State (Nov. 3).

Up Next…
The Ladyjacks are back in action next weekend in Limerick, Pennsylvania, for Kutztown University's Kutztown Invite, held Friday-Sunday, Jan. 18-20.

Stay tuned to SFAJacks.com, as well as SFA's social media platforms, for complete coverage of Ladyjack bowling throughout the winter and spring.

-SFA-