Columbia, Mo.—The University of Saint Mary men's and women's bowling team hit the road to Columbia, Missouri to compete in the Columbia Cougar Clash on Saturday, December 6^th and Sunday, December 7^th.

The Spire women left their mark in COMO with senior Jordan Reynolds finishing in second place overall with an individual score of 770, only 12 points away from the CC leader, giving her an impressive tournament average of 192.5. Spire teammate Emma Gorton finished in 27^th place overall with an individual total of 633 and a tournament average of 158.3. Kirstin Ussery was close behind in 31^st place with a strong individual score of 614 (153.5 avg.) and lead teammates Leanna Larson and Brooklyn Smith in an extremely tight finish at 39^th and 40^th place respectively. Larson finished with an individual total of 580 with Smith a mere 2 points behind at 578, giving the bowlers a nearly identical tournament average of 145 and 144.5.

With the Baker games taking place on Sunday, the Spires finished the weekend strong as they worked together through 16 Baker games to earn themselves a total of 2505. This gave the USM women a tournament average of 156.6 on the last day of play and landing them into a 6^th place finish, beating Iowa Western, Cottey College, and Central Methodist University.
 
USM men's bowling had a promising showing in Columbia as well with athletes Alex Prescott, Dantoine Ballard, Emilio Gutierrez, Erik Brim, Kalym Henry, Kelton Craig, and Zaylen Dear representing for the University.
Among the Spire competitors was junior Kalym Henry who led the way for USM with an individual total of 742 through 4 games to kick off the weekend competition, giving Henry a tournament average of 185.5. Following closely behind was a pair of teammates with Alex Prescott and Dantoine Ballard finished day one with a individual total of 734 and 728, giving them a 183.5 and a 182 tournament average, respectively.

The Spires were further supported by Zaylen Dear with a 515 total through 3 games (171.1 avg.), Kelton Craig with a 291 total through only 2 games (145.5 avg.), Erik Brim earning a 338 total through 2 games (169 avg.), and Emilio Gutierrez with a 140 total through only 1 game bowled on Saturday. On Sunday, the final day of play, the USM men bowled a strong 2921 through 16 Baker games thrown, giving them a 182.6 tournament average on day two.
 
The Spire bowling squad will take a well-earned holiday break and look forward to being back in action on Friday, January 16^th and Saturday, January 17^th at the Kegel ISBPA in Addison, Illinois.