The St. Ambrose bowling program enjoyed some home cooking this weekend. Three men's teams and two women's teams competed at the 23rd annual Leatherneck Classic. The largest Tier 2 event in the nation, this represents the only tournament of the season hosted locally. Teams competed in four local centers across the Quad-City region. This season's lane pattern was a relatively flat, extremely challenging condition with the scoring pace being low.

The men's varsity squad competed at Big River Bowling in Davenport. The men's field included a field of 44 teams. The top three qualifiers were Wichita State (8433), Saint Xavier (8307) and Webber International (8179). St. Ambrose qualified fifth with 8027.

The top eight teams advanced to the best-of-3 elimination match play finals. SAU took on No. 4-seeded Calumet in the first round and advanced with a 2-1 decision. The decisive game No. 3 was 202-201 in SAU's favor. That set up a match with the defending national champions and top qualifiers Wichita State. This match was deadlocked at one game each before Wichita State pulled away with a string of six straight strikes to eliminate the Bees in the semifinals. Mount Mercy went on to upset Wichita State 2-1 to claim the championship.

Players on the men's varsity team included Zach Greim (1082-five games), Justin Aboud (1016-five games), Lucas Hersrud (1008-five games), Devin Richards (986-five games), Cameron Crowe (554-three games), Kendric Siders (412-two games), Lucas Finley and Pedro Irizarry.

The men had a pair of JV teams compete at Leisure Lanes in Davenport. Men's JV2 finished in sixth place in the field of 17 teams, while JV1 finished just 11 pins behind in seventh. The top three teams were Wichita State (8260), Mount Mercy (7938) and Wichita State JV2 (7783).

The men's JV2 team included Eli Haack (935-five games), Josh Prowse (926-five games), Logan Boll (763-four games), Landon Mathiason (535-three games), Luke Kahuhu (528-three games), Matthew Edler (527-three games), Chance Swan (157-one game) and Adam Reed (136-one game).

JV1 team members were Nic Kidd (983-five games), Alex Nolan (975-five games), Will Young (916-five games), Anthony Mastroianni (889-five games), Zack Olkiewicz (762-four games), Jaxon Robinson (193-one game), Brendan DeWerth and Raiden Nakagawa.

On the women's side, 33 varsity teams laced up at Highland Park Bowl in Moline, Ill., while nine JV squads compete at TBK Sports Complex in Bettendorf, Iowa.

The women's varsity team snuck into the match play finals in eighth place and faced No. 1-seed Mount Mercy. In a great match, they fell to the mustangs 2-1, losing the final game 182-181. Wichita State earned the No. 2 seed (7559), with Saint Xavier claiming the No. 3 seed (7483). Calumet knocked off Mount Mercy 2-1 in the title match.

Varsity bowlers included Sammy Upham (946-five games), Marissa Bills (931-five games), Noelle Phillips (703-four games), Tricia Alvarado (564-three games), Amanda Bohn (557-three games), Erin Williams (456-three games), Amanda Bohn (160-one game) and Kayla Devine (137-one game).

Women's JV finished ninth. Team members were Maddie Ksobiech (834-five games), Hailee Hospodar (793-five games), Shay Edwards (617-four games), Madison Holevoet (614-four games), Makenna Verdon (441-three games), Bailey Tripilas (281-two games), Shaylin Brown (133-one game) and Alexis Peters (117-one game).

The men's and women's varsity squad return to action this weekend in the Tier 1 National Match Games in Fairview Heights, Ill.