Women's bowling finished sixth in a field of 55 teams while the men took ninth in a field of 68 at the ISBPA Kegel Collegiate Classic January 17-18 at Stardust Bowl in Addison, Illinois, just outside Chicago.

Bowling the early squad of two each day, the Lady Lions started well, firing 1013 in their opening game, just six pins behind the top score. That landed them in second place out of the gate, but the standings were very tight with only 70 pins separating first and 11^th. Lindenwood followed with 947, 1091, and 1021 in games two, three, and four. That pushed the Lady Lions into the lead over the University of Northwestern Ohio (UNO) by a 28-pin margin, but the final game of the day was a bit more of a struggle. After finishing game five with 928, Lindenwood totaled exactly 5000. The Lady Lions sat in third place in A squad, just 17 pins behind squad leader Mount Mercy and 11 behind UNO. After the late B squad completed day one, Lindenwood had been pushed to fourth with Judson taking over third by seven pins.

The Lady Lions were poised to make a run at the tournament championship, but the opening baker set on Sunday was dreadful, just 654. Lindenwood recovered a bit in set two with 727, but the damage had been done with more than a 180-pin gap to the top team. Final sets of 790 and 779 stemmed the tide, but a 16-game baker total of 2950 was well off the pace. When B squad finished, the Lady Lions had slipped to sixth place with a grand total of 7950. That was 213 pins behind event winner Mount Mercy. Judson took second, Northwestern Ohio third, Lawrence Tech fourth, and SCAD – Savannah finished fifth, just 21-pins ahead of Lindenwood. Indiana Tech claimed seventh place with 7944.

After some definite struggles in the final two events of the fall, the Lions performed much better at the Kegel on day one. With opening games of 1092 and 1057, Lindenwood sat in fourth place in A squad and was maintaining a good pace with the top teams, only 145 pins behind second place Wisconsin – Whitewater and just 13 behind SCAD – Savannah in third. Games three and four fell off the pace a bit. Scores of 984 and 982 dropped the Lions to seventh place in the early squad with a possible tournament title getting a bit out of reach, but Lindenwood rallied for 1144 in game five and posted a day one total of 5259. When scores were combined with B squad, the Lions maintained seventh place and had cut the gap to the top team back down to just 263-pins.

After a solid performance on Saturday, Lindenwood had some struggles during the 16-game baker block on Sunday. The Lions managed to turn some high potential games into average games. Several strings of strikes were followed by splits and opens and created a "what could have been" scenario. Lindenwood started with a respectable 797 set to open the day, but followed with 739 in set two. From that point, the Lions averaged just over 200 with sets of 780 and 821, but the scoring pace at the top of the standings was higher, so Lindenwood lost ground. With a baker total of 3137, the Lions had a grand total of 8396. When combined with B squad, they finished in ninth place, 45-pins behind Marian University (Ind.) in eighth. Calumet College of St. Joseph came from behind to claim the tournament championship, followed by Wisconsin – Whitewater, Mount Mercy, St. Ambrose, and Lawrence Tech.

Individually, senior Hailey Bozych led the Lady Lions with a five-game total of 1074 (214.8 average) including high games of 246 and 220. That was good enough for fourth place in the field of 366 bowlers and a spot on the All-Tournament Team, her fifth ATT out of seven events this season. Carissa Merkle finished 14^th with 1032 (206.4 average), Isabelle Fletcher took 18^th with 1018 (203.6 average), including a high game of 257, followed by Liz Rittenour in 19^th with 1016 (203.2 average).

In the men's field of 473 players, Emmanuel McPherson finished seventh with a total of 1144 (228.8 average), including high games of 255 twice, 237, and 222. Charlie Burns totaled 1039 (207.8 average) to take 69^th place, with Luke Batchelor in 76^th place with 1033 (206.6 average). Mikael Najarro averaged 206.5 for four games to help the Lions cause. Alex David and Kaden Lansford came off the bench to shoot 236 and 223 respectively in the 1144 team game on Saturday.

Men's and women's bowling was scheduled to travel to Louisville, Kentucky for two, one-day events in the Mid-South Conference (MSC), but the pending winter storm led to a cancellation. Lindenwood will now head to the Cedar Valley Invite in Waterloo, Iowa. The men's squad will compete January 31 and the women's squad will compete February 1.