BY JEFFREY LUTZ
The Wichita Eagle
Wichita State's men's bowling team can make history this week by doing something it has done 10 times before — win one intercollegiate championship. Just one.
It just so happens that if the Shockers win this one, they'll become the first team to win four consecutive national titles. The three-day, 16-team tournament starts Thursday in Columbus, Ga. The Newman men advanced as well, and Newman and WSU reached the 16-team women's field.
WSU men's coach Gordon Vadakin said his team's success hasn't come from attempting to achieve the unprecedented, but from treating each tournament and each shot as a single event. WSU also won three straight titles from 1993-95.
"Every year stands alone as a separate competition," Vadakin said. "Every competition is separate, every team is different. We're trying to take this to its simplest terms, which is one shot at a time, even one moment at a time."
The No. 3-ranked Shockers succeed because they almost always have multiple players who have played in the national tournament, which takes pressure off the competitors who haven't been there.
This year's team doesn't just have players who have competed at nationals, but several who can call themselves national champions. Jake Peters and Josh McBride have been a part of the last three titles, and multiple others have won at least once.
"They're the guys who are going to smile and laugh (but) be intense and make shots when they know they can," Vadakin said. "They're going to use the competition to almost make them focus and relax more. It's those sorts of folks that have been there and understand the environment that we're going to count on to stay calm and to focus."
The Shockers may be nearly unmatched in depth. They have eight players averaging at least 200 — Marcus Berndt leads WSU with a 212 average — which well help them in the tournament's Baker format that involves five players shooting two frames apiece.
WSU's women are equally balanced, with eight players who average 180 or better and four more who top 173.
But the women's team has a star in junior Jazreel Tan, a leading candidate for national player of the year who boasts a 204 average.
Even though several players will help determine where WSU finishes, having at least one leader gives the Shockers an edge.
"You see it happen a lot over the years," WSU women's coach Mark Lewis said. "If you've got three role players and two players playing great, they can carry you through this. It may not be a solid five-person performance or even depth beyond that."
WSU's women enter the tournament as the nation's top-ranked team.
Lewis' team has history on its side. The Shocker women have won in the last-three odd-numbered years. Last year, the women were eliminated in the semifinals.
"(The ranking) goes out the window," Lewis said. "There's a number of teams that are all close, just as capable depending on how well they perform. It would be nice after day one to be in the first position, because you have that luxury of being the number one seed. Coming in right now being number one, it's nice but it doesn't mean that much coming into the tournament."
GO SHOX!!!!
