Bowling Heads to Arkansas State for Lone Tournament in February

The Youngstown State bowling team will try to build momentum for the final stretch of the regular season as it heads to Jonesboro, Ark., for the Mid-Winter Invitational this week. The three-day tournament will begin on Friday at the Hijinx Family Entertainment Center, and Arkansas State will serve as the host.

This will be Youngstown State's lone tournament in February, and only two regular-season competitions will remain for the Penguins at the end of the week.

All of the Penguins' matches will be streamed live on the YSUsports YouTube channel, and results will be posted when they become available on the team's Twitter and Facebook accounts.

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Tournament Format

The Mid-Winter Invitational will follow the standard 13-match rotation at the Hijinx Family Entertainment Center. There will be 10 matches of qualifying and three bracket matches over the three days. There will be five Baker matches on Friday beginning at 11 a.m. Eastern, and total pinfall will determine the winners of each head-to-head match. Five traditional matches will follow on Saturday starting at 10:25 a.m. Eastern with pinfall again determining the winners. The total pins from the first 10 matches of the tournament will determine seeding for bracket play on Sunday, which begins at 9:10 a.m. Eastern. The bracket matches will be contested in a best-of-seven Baker format. Trophies will be awarded to the top two teams, and the top five individual pinfalls on Saturday will be named to the all-tournament team.

Scouting the Field

Youngstown State will be one of 11 ranked teams in the NTCA Top 25 poll competing in the 17-team field this week in Jonesboro, Ark. The Penguins are one of five programs from the Southland Bowling League, all of which are ranked in the top 12. In addition to the seventh-ranked Penguins, the field will feature top-ranked McKendree, No. 3 Nebraska, No. 4 Arkansas State, No. 5 Stephen F. Austin, No. 8 Maryville and No. 9 Sam Houston.

Southland Teams (5): Arkansas State, Louisiana Tech, Sam Houston, Stephen F. Austin, Youngstown State

Ranked Teams (11): #1 McKendree, #3 Nebraska, #4 Arkansas State, #5 Stephen F. Austin, #7 Youngstown State, #8 Maryville, #9 Sam Houston, #12 Louisiana Tech, #17 Central Missouri, #20 UW-Whitewater, #21 Lincoln Memorial

Unranked Teams (6): Alabama A&M, Alabama State, Grambling, Jackson State, Kentucky Wesleyan, Tusculum

Teams are divided into two pools based on the most-recent RPI, and Youngstown State is in the red pool. The Penguins will compete against Nebraska, Stephen F. Austin, Maryville, Central Missouri, UW-Whitewater, Kentucky Wesleyan, Tusculum and Alabama A&M, and there will be a positional match to begin Saturda's action based on the standings after Friday. YSU will also have one uncontested match due to there being an odd number of teams at the event.

YSU's Schedule

Friday - Five Baker matches beginning at 11 a.m. ET

vs. Bye - Lanes 13-14
vs. #20 UW-Whitewater - Lanes 23-24
vs. #5 Stephen F. Austin - Lanes 19-20
vs. #8 Maryville
vs. Tusculum

Saturday - Five traditional matches beginning at 10:25 a.m. ET

TBA - Position Round
vs. #17 Central Missouri - Lanes 27-28
vs. Kentucky Wesleyan - Lanes 3-4
vs. #3 Nebraska - Lanes 15-16
vs. Alabama A&M - Lanes 5-6

Sunday - Three best-of-seven Baker matches beginning at 9:10 a.m. ET

Previously at the Mid-Winter Invitational

This will be the fourth straight season that Youngstown State will compete at the Mid-Winter Invitational.

2020 - The Penguins went 8-4 in head-to-head matches and finished eighth among 19 teams. YSU beat second-ranked Sam Houston at the tournament, and it picked up six wins over ranked teams. Emma Dockery bowled a 267 game, which was a school record for highest individual game at the time, and finished 19th individually.
2021 - Madyson Marx earned the first All-Tournament Team award of her collegiate career as she posted a six-game pinfall of 1,324 that placed her fifth individually in the field. That total remains the school record for a six-game set, and her 220.67 average from the weekend is still the sixth-best average for a single tournament. Youngstown State finished fourth out of 11 teams.
2022 - The Penguins averaged 210.72 over their 18 games in bracket play to have a strong finish. Youngstown State beat No. 20 Lewis and No. 1 McKendree in bracket play, and YSU beat the top-ranked Bearcats twice at the tournament. YSU went 7-6 overall in head-to-head play and placed eighth in the field of 18 teams.

Recapping the PVAMU Invitational

Youngstown State was last in action on Jan. 27-29 when it finished seventh among 12 teams at the Prairie View A&M Invitational. The Penguins were tied for fourth after 11 games of qualifying, but they lost the tiebreaker with Stephen F. Austin and were left out of the championship bracket. YSU was the fifth seed, and it lost 4-0 to North Carolina A&T but bounced back to beat Arkansas State 4-3 to finish seventh.

Individually, Madyson Marx was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player by finishing with a six-game set of 1,322. That was six pins higher than the second-place finisher, and Marx became the first Penguin to win an individual tournament title since Emma Wrenn in 2019. Freshman Hope Bunk finished ninth individually with a 1,245 set.

Up Next

Youngstown State will be idle the last weekend of February, but it will compete in three of the first four weekends of March. The busy stretch next month begins at Nebraska's Big Red Invitational on March 3-5 in Lincoln, Neb.