After competing as one of the best 16 teams in the country, Wichita State men’s bowling placed second at the Intercollegiate Team Championships from April 16 to 19.
While most programs would be ecstatic about taking home silver, that wasn’t the goal for the Shockers. They expect to win it all each year.
“We’re going to get there every year,” senior Spencer Robarge said. “It’s just a matter of whether or not we can bring it home at the end, or not. And obviously, second is good, but we go to win.”
The Shockers have set such a high standard for themselves at the ITC because of the decades of success they’ve built.
WSU’s men’s team currently holds the most ITC wins by any program, with 13 in the 50 years the tournament has been run. The next closest school has won four.
Head coach Rick Steelsmith credited the people who started the program for its success. Gordon Vadakin and Mark Lewis jump-started the program, and for more than two decades, they helped it rise to the prominence it now claims.
“That just gets carried over,” Steelsmith said. “We always try to make the following year better than the one before … we build on what we have had in the past. And then we try to keep up and add new things that we feel, like with technology and all kinds of other things, that will help us to continue to get better and better each year.”
Sophomore Braden Mallasch said the team will use the result as motivation to bring home another national championship next season.
“We obviously know we can do it,” Mallasch said. “We have a lot of good bowlers (and) we have a lot of good bowlers coming back next year. And I’m confident with the people that we can end up winning a national championship.”
Despite the disappointment about not winning a national championship this year, there were still some bright spots for the team.
Steelsmith said that at a tournament of this level, the team played the most consistently they have all season.
“We had spots here and there during the season where we really clicked and really jelled and played at a really high level,” Steelsmith said. “But it wasn’t as consistent as this tournament. I think everything came together at a higher level than it did at any point during the season, and it stayed consistent all the way through the matches that we bowled there.”
Robarge was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player. He said earning MVP meant a lot to him.
“I feel like I bowled about the best that I possibly could have over the course of the week, both in singles and in team,” Robarge said. “… It was fun to be able to do that, and you know, to get the award at the end was cool. I don’t think it totally takes away from what would have been to actually win the whole thing.
“But it’s a nice little something to keep with me.”
Robarge and senior Brandon Bonta both bowled in their final tournaments as members of WSU’s team. Even though Bonta, a Wichita native, will graduate this semester, he said the experience of playing for such a historic program and participating in the ITC has been a dream come true.
“Being here has really just been an honor,” Bonta said. “And for all the young bowlers out there that want to go somewhere, where they know they can succeed as well as grow and develop — this is the number one spot for them.”
