Wichita State Shocker men’s bowling team collects record 13th USBC national championship

Taylor Eldridge
·3 min read

The Wichita State bowling dynasty added yet another national championship to its collection on Saturday night.

The WSU men’s bowling team won its 13th national championship, bringing the program total to 23 total, at the 2023 USBC Intercollegiate Team Championships at South Point Bowling Plaza in Las Vegas. The next closest program, Saginaw Valley State, has four national titles.

In a rematch of the 2021 ITC finals, Wichita State once again defeated St. Ambrose (Iowa) — this time without much drama. After winning a nail-biter 3-2 in 2021, the Shockers cruised to a 3-0 sweep of St. Ambrose on Saturday. The final match will be aired on CBS Sports Network on Tuesday, May 16 at 6 p.m.

WSU’s championship bowlers included senior Alec Keplinger, senior T.J. Rock, senior Nick Sommer, sophomore Brandon Bonta, a Wichita Northwest graduate, junior Ryan Barnes, son of WSU legendary bowler Chris Barnes, junior David Hayes, sophomore Spencer Robarge and freshman Brandon Caruso.

Keplinger was named to the ITC all-tournament team and named the Most Valuable Player, while Bonta earned the Chris Stoehr Sportsmanship award.

“The guys worked really hard for this day in and day out and they were able to send the seniors out the way that they needed to be sent out,” Steelsmith told bowl.com. “Our program is blessed with some of the best kids in the country and I’m just so proud of them all.”

While the WSU women’s bowling team rolled into the finals of its bracket undefeated, the Shockers came up short in a heartbreaking loss to Maryville (Mo.) with back-to-back 4-3 losses in the match to go to the televised finals.

Wichita State freshman Paige Wagner won the women’s singles title at the 2023 USBC Intercollegiate Singles Championships in Las Vegas on Saturday. The WSU women’s bowling team just missed out on qualifying for the televised finals.
Wichita State freshman Paige Wagner won the women’s singles title at the 2023 USBC Intercollegiate Singles Championships in Las Vegas on Saturday. The WSU women’s bowling team just missed out on qualifying for the televised finals.

But the team still came away with a national champion in Paige Wagner, a freshman from Great Bend who won the women’s singles title over Maryville’s Anna Maxwell in a thrilling 211-203 final.

Wagner delivered strikes on six of her first seven shots to take control of the lead early, but left back-to-back frames open in the eighth and ninth to allow Maxwell to rally. Maxwell had an opportunity to pull off the comeback if she finished with strikes on her final five throws, but instead settled for a score of 203.

Needing at least a spare and two pins in the 10th frame, Wagner converted the spare in the clutch and then knocked down nine pins on her final throw to win the ISC title with a score of 2011.

For the WSU men, it is the second national title under head coach Rick Steelsmith, one of the program’s all-time great bowlers who took over the program after legendary coach Gordon Vadakin retired in 2019. The Shockers have now won national titles in 1980, 1987, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1998, 2003, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2015, 2021 and 2023.

After surviving some nervy moments in ladder matches, including 4-3 wins over Pikeville (Ky.) and Purdue on Thursday, WSU again had to battle adversity in Friday’s blue bracket finals. St. Francis (Ill.) handed the Shockers their only defeat of the week in the first match, 4-2, but WSU responded with a 4-1 victory to advance to the televised finals.