After a very successful 2025-26 regular season, Baker Men’s Bowling finished second in the Heart of America Conference Championship tournament. They began the weekend as a two-seed and were victorious in the first two rounds of the bracket, defeating both No. 7 Grand View and No. 3 William Penn before suffering a defeat at the hands of Mount Mercy. The Wildcats bounced back with a second victory over No. 3 William Penn, which advanced the Wildcats to a rematch with the No. 1-seed Mount Mercy, which is also ranked first in the country. Needing two straight victories against Mount Mercy in the championship round, the Wildcats were unable to overcome the struggle of winning back-to-back games against the Statesmen.
When asked about the Wildcats finishing second place in the conference tournament, Baker Bowling Head Coach Casey Suchor said, ” I am very proud. The second we finished the tournament, we huddled together for an emotional meeting. As I frequently ask the group in huddles, I asked “how do we feel?” With almost no hesitation, they said ‘proud.’ We competed at a very high level against the #1 ranked team in the country and nearly came away with the trophy.”
The men’s bowling team was very young this season, as nearly 60 percent of this team was new to the program. Coach Suchor also stated that his goal was to “continue progressing the program in the right direction culturally and competitively.” He believes this was achieved, but the program has more to prove. With such a young team, they have not reached their potential.
It was a very important point of emphasis for Coach Suchor that the program’s culture helped them grow very quickly and led to the quick success of the team and program. He feels that unity within the group is one of the main ways to build this culture, and it starts with simple things like everyone practicing together and respect between all coaches and players on the team. They also believe in having a very competitive practice environment, which leads to success on the Lanes.
The Wildcats Bowling team spends hours on the lanes each week. They practice on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 4-5:30 p.m. Their practices involve things that they can all work on, like targeting, lane play, spare shooting, and teamwork/communication. The players also have 1-on-1 training with the coaches once a week, where they can work on their individual skills as bowlers.
The Baker Men’s Bowling team’s next competition will be the USBC Sectionals on March 14-15 in Smyrna, Tennessee.
