Jacksonville State Wins College Bowling Title

In the first year of bowling, Jacksonville State recently won the 2024 National Championship in College Bowling with a thrilling 4-3 over Arkansas State.  The match was played in front of a national television audience and a packed house at Detroit's historic Thunderbowl lanes.

Former McKendree Coach Shannon O'Keefe knows how to build a championship program as she led McKendree to the 2017 and 2022 titles.  She led Jacksonville State to success with her first team.

In a battle between the nation’s top two teams (the 12th time they had met this season), the top-ranked and top-seeded Jacksonville State Gamecocks (103-23) found themselves in a 3-2 hole behind No. 2 Arkansas State Red Wolves with their backs against the wall.

The Red Wolves definitely pushed Jacksonville State, reversing momentum after a back-and-forth start to win the fourth and fifth games to take a 3-2 lead and pull to within one win of their first national title. It didn’t faze the Gamecocks, however. They settled in and battled back to win the final two games, bowling a 237 in game four and a 255 in game seven to bring home Jacksonville State’s first Division I national championship and the first by any Gamecock team since 1992.

The team’s national championship is unprecedented in many ways. It is the first since moving up to Division I from Division II after the 1992-93 academic year, and the first since the Division II football title in 1992. It is also the first by a Jacksonville State women’s program since back-to-back gymnastics championships in 1984 and 1985.

Perhaps most significant, it’s the first for a first-year bowling program and is believed to be the first in any sport for a team in its inaugural season of competition.

Jacksonville State University is located in Jacksonville, Alabama.

(Source:  alabamanewscenter.com)