Pride men earn team runner-up, Webb and Gerken earn individual medals at Clarke Invite

DUBUQUE, Iowa - Returning to their home at Dubuque's Cherry Lanes for the yearly Clarke Invite, the Clarke University bowling teams had a team runner-up finish and two top-five finishers on the individual side this past weekend.

The Pride men earned second place overall in the tournament following a day one top score following individual games to then earn a spot in the match play round after placing third following the baker games at a team score of 8003 pins.

CU would match up with Iowa Central Community College in the best-of-three semifinals as Iowa Central earned the opening game win before Clarke would come back to win games two and three to move onto the finals against Iowa Western Community College as IWCC would win the first two games in the finals to earn the tournament championship, putting the Pride as the runner-up.

During Saturday's individual games, Clarke's Tanner Webb earned third place overall with a five-game score of 1086 pins for a 217.2 pins per game average. Webb threw matching 254 games in the third and fourth as he earned his second-straight top-three finish at the Clarke Invite, winning the 2022 individual event.

Shane Jordan earned a top 10 finish for CU as well, finishing in ninth place with a 1020 total pin count and a best game in his first at 224 to average 204. The only other men's bowler for the Pride to participate in all five games was Jordan Gorgas, who finished in 17th with a 976 total pin count.

Adante Jones, Landen Freismuth, and Mannix Amos all took at least one game off as Jones bowled in four games for a 740 total pin count after bowling three separate games of 201, Freismuth went 223, 203, 182 in his three games and Amos scored 222, 169, 209.

On the women's side, Kassidy Gerken earned a fourth place finish to medal for the Pride as she finished with a total pin count of 1047, one of only five women's bowlers in the entire tournament to score over 1000 pins. 

All four Clarke women's bowlers finished in the top half of the field with Emma Clancy finishing in 20th with an 896 total pin count, Stephanie Thompson finished in 24th with 876 pins, and Zoe Schultz finished in 29th with an 841.

The Pride will have a weekend off before returning to action in February for the Kohawk Invitational in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Feb. 4-5.