The women’s sports program at Baker University welcomed a new addition this semester. Entering into its first year, the Baker University women’s bowling team is anxious to start their fall season.

The team will not compete within the Heart of American Athletic Conference. Rather, the bowlers will join the United States Bowling Congress.

“We will be a member of the United States Bowling Congress (USBC). They have sanctioned tournaments throughout pretty much the entire country but we will look to stay regional,” associate athletic director Theresa Yetmar said.

As a member of the USBC the Baker bowling team expects to face competition from all collegiate levels.

“There can be schools from NCAA, NAIA, or NJCAA,” Yetmar said. “As long as it is a sanctioned team then they can participate.”

Leading the team will be head coach Kristal Wilson. Wilson is a Wichita State University alumna where she was a 3 time All-American. She grabbed a third place finish as a 2001 World Cup participant. She was a 2008 Women’s U.S. Open finalist and was a member of the 2001 and 2002 team USA. Along with this Wilson has also competed successfully internationally.

“She has quite a list of credentials so we are very excited about having her as member of our staff,” Yetmar said.

This will be Wilson’s first head coaching position, but she is confident that her past experience will aid her in taking on the challenge.

“I bring a lot of the experience from when I was a player for the program I went through so I will be able to use a lot of that to help me.” Wilson said.

With a roster of 8 athletes, and a wide range of past experience, Wilson said the main goal for the team’s first year will be working toward improvement with each tournament.

“We have some that are pretty well established and we have others that haven’t really competed with bowling very much, but it was something they really wanted to do,” Wilson said. “So definitely just improving every year and getting our name out there since we are a first year program.”

Freshman Caitlin Campbell said that although she competed at the high school level she hopes to use this year to learn the ropes of collegiate level bowling.

“I know that I don’t really know a whole bunch about college bowling, so basically we just need to do the best we can and get a feel for it,” Campbell said.

The team will compete in its first tournament October 10 and 11 in Wichita, Ks.