This weekend saw the St. Ambrose bowlers competing in the annual Midwest Collegiate Championships in Detroit, Mich. One of the longest-running Tier 1 events in the nation, this marked the first time the tournament was staged in Detroit, after a 55-year run in the Milwaukee suburb of Wauwatosa, Wis.

The event featured many of the nation's top bowling programs, including 51 varsity men's teams, four JV men's teams, and 42 varsity women's teams. Teams rolled five traditional team games on Saturday, and 16 baker games on Sunday before the field was trimmed to the top eight men's and women's teams for the best-of-3 bracket finals.

After a sub-par Saturday (five team games), the men found themselves in 20th place in the stacked field, 208 pins behind eighth place. Sunday, however, was an entirely different story. As the team began to click, the Bees steadily moved up the standings, edging closer to the cut score. They moved from 20th to 16th to 13th to ninth, and eventually sixth, which earned them a spot in the match-play finals, and a first-round contest against defending national champions Wisconsin-Whitewater, the No. 3 seed. SAU stopped them 2-0, moving on against No. 2 seed Webber International. SAU stopped them 2-0 as well. That vaulted St. Ambrose into the title tilt against a red-hot Purdue team that qualified as the No. 1 seed. The outcome of that match was the same, as SAU claimed the title with a 2-0 win; they began the final game with eight straight strikes, and knocked out the top three seeds on their way to the victory.

The top 3 seeds were Purdue (8707), Webber International (8556) and Wisconsin-Whitewater (8545). SAU's pinfall total was 8245.

The victory comes hot on the heels of the team's season-opening win in Rockford, and it marked the first time that St. Ambrose has opened the season with back-to-back tournament titles. Amazingly, SAU has not lost a single game thus far in 2025-26, beginning the season with an unblemished record of six match wins, and a perfect 13-0 record.

Kendric Siders led the men with 1094 for his five games. His teammates were Tommy Burns Jr (942-five games), Keaten Bieri (799-four games), Lucas Hersrud (721-four games), Devin Richards (545-three games), Tyler Close (375-two games), Kevin Magnuson (187-one game) and Lucas Finley (161-one game).

The men's JV squad came out on top of a compact four-team field. Freshman Evan Flath found his stride, as he averaged 220.6 for his five games (1103 pins) and placing sixth overall. His teammates were Gavin Finley (1006-five games), Evan White (740-four games), Elias O'Hollaren (708-four games), Jaxon Robinson (519-three games), Dylan Harnden (369-two games), Wyatt Honecker (221-one game) and Chayce Stouffer (150-one game).

Women launch charge to reach semifinals

While the men were making their comeback, the women were nothing short of sensational in making a monumental rally of their own. Entering the final four-game baker block on Sunday, the women found themselves in 11th place, 152 pins behind the cut score. Then, they fired an 819 to charge into eighth place, earning a spot in the eight-team bracket finals.

In the finals, they knocked out top-seeded Milligan 2-0 before falling to eventual tournament champs SCAD-Savannah 2-0 in the semifinals.

The top three seeds were Milligan (7816), Judson (7776) and Aquinas (7764). SAU's pinfall total was 7454.

Team members were Emma Taft (984-five games), Marissa Bills (922-five games), Kayla Staub (899-five games), Molly Bramble (869-five games), Mia Almeida (751-four games), Brooklyn Schlapkohl (149-one game), Megan Nyenhuis and Katie Otten.

The teams are off for three weeks before traveling to the 5 Seasons Classic in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Nov 1-2.