JACKSON, Mich. - Nearly 18 months after being announced as the 15th and 16th teams at Goshen College, the Maple Leafs bowling teams made their debut at the Dirty Bird Classic at Jax 60 in Jackson, Michigan on Saturday. Rebekah Muzyk made the All-Tournament Team as the top female bowler of the tournament with 599 pins. The women finished 4th of 14 teams and the men finished 12th of 15.

"It was a big day for the program," said Goshen head coach Scott Curtis. "Everyone knew that Goshen was in the house with the way they performed throughout the day."

The Leafs left Goshen early on Saturday morning through the fog as they arrived in Jackson for the 8:00 am start. The format was three regular games followed by ten baker games. A baker game is when five bowlers alternate during the course of the ten frames of a game (player one bowls frames one and six, player two bowls frames two and seven, etc.). The ten games result in two baker set scores which are added to the scores from the three regular games.

Women - 4th of 14
The women were in first place after the first regular game. They had a game total of 891 by that point, with three players bowling scores of 190 or higher in the first game. With scores of 821 and 862 in the next two regular games, and then 809 and 780 in the baker games, they finished high enough to move to the playoffs as the four seed facing five seed Madonna in the six-team bracket. Goshen won the first game 168-130, but the Crusaders won the next two by scores of 143-123 and 196-179 to win 2-1 and advance to the semifinal round.

The only teams placing ahead of Goshen were Spring Arbor, Concordia and Trine (Division III). Spring Arbor and Concordia were 8th and 12th respectively in the final women's bowling RPI rankings of 2023-24. The Leafs placed ahead of Crossroads League foes Indiana Wesleyan and Grace this weekend.

Rebekah Muzyk placed first of 121 bowlers in the women's division. Across the three regular games, her scores of 190, 197 and 212 totaled 599 pins - 31 pins higher than the next closest competitor, Amanda Kouros of Indiana Wesleyan. Jessica Spidell came in 21st with 507 pins and Samantha Bean was 29th at 489 pins.

The women's junior varsity team finished fourth of six teams.

Men - 12th of 15
The Goshen men got better as the regular games went on. After an 803 score in the first game, they posted scores of 841 and 842 for the next two. The first five baker games produced a score of 882, with four games at a score of 176 or higher. However, the second baker set didn't have any games over 150, and Goshen had a final score of 683 in the latter set and 4,051 total pins through the course of the day.

Brendan Riley was the highest performer for the Leafs, coming in 24th out of 143 with 545 pins. Parker Lovejoy finished 39th, knocking down 511 pins across the three regular games.

The men's junior varsity team came in second of seven, making it to the playoffs and losing to Siena Heights 2-0 in bakers. Cameron Fedenis bowled the first 200 game for the men, posting a 234 score in his second game.

Goshen competes next in the Midwest Collegiate Championship in Miwaukee, Wisconsin, on October 5th and 6th.