Rio women rally for 10th-place finish at Western Shootout

Rio Grande Sports Information
     INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - The University of Rio Grande used a big second day performance to post a 10th-place finish in the Columbia 300 Western Shootout, which wrapped up its two-day run on Sunday at the Royal Pin Western Lanes.
     After starting day two in 16th place among the 23 participating schools following Saturday's six rounds of team play, the RedStorm used a 199 average in Sunday's opening round of baker play to jump to 13th place - 350 pins behind Tennessee Wesleyan University.
     The Rio Grande ladies were up to the task, though, averaging 220 over the last 12 games and finishing with 8,619 total pins to jump into 10th place.
     In the process, the RedStorm broke the single Baker game record twice (265 and 266), the four-Baker game block record twice (881 and 895) and also set the new 16-game Baker Block record of 3443.
     Rio Grande's Sunday total score was more than 200 pins higher than the next-best scoring team for the day (Calumet College of St. Joseph) - the 2nd ranked women's team in the country.
     Trine University won the team title with 9,312 pins, while the remainder of the top three included Calumet (9,036) and Rochester University (9,005).
     Rio's top individual showing in the field of 183 bowlers came from senior Caity Moody (Xenia, OH), who was 18th with 1,199 pins over six games for an average of 199.8. She was also responsible for the team's single-game high with a 278 in game five.
     Others participating for the RedStorm included freshman Lina Fernandez (Mechanicsburg, PA), who was 36th with 1,150 pins in six rounds; sophomore Payton Goodman (Cardington, OH), who finished 71st with 972 pins in six games; sophomore Julie Lemaster (Chillicothe, OH), who grabbed 73rd place with 953 pins in six games; sophomore Jaelyn Hughes (Indian Lake, OH), who was 125th with 611 pins over four rounds; and freshman Melanie Liming (Georgetown, OH), who was 167th with 291 pins in two rounds.
     Rio Grande returns to action on Saturday at the Ohio Bowling Conference Tournament No. 2 in Columbus.