CRIMSON STORM EARNS 2025 SWIBC CHAMPIONSHIP TITTLE IN SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS

A quote from ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit, “Part of what makes college football great is what you learn playing it." There was no football played in San Antonio, Texas on February 8th and 9th but, The SNU Bowling Team experienced Herbstreit’s words and learned so many aspects of the game at the 2025 SWIBC Championships. Something special happened in San Antonio, Texas.

Five teammates, Myles Etherington, Landon McConnell, Lilly Houle, Dylan Terada and Brandon Handog put together a great week of practice prior to the SWIBC Championships. PBA Champion, CK Moore spent two days at practice helping Coach Jeffreys and the team prepare for the weekend in San Antonio. “CK is a great friend, coach and knows so much about this game, said Coach Jeffreys. “Having been a former college coach at Hastings in Nebraska, CK kept things simple with the team and the team responded to CK’s insights. To spend a few days with CK was awesome.”

In a somewhat unique situation, the Crimson Storm arrived in San Antonio on Friday evening and was given an opportunity to bowl Friday evening on the lane pattern scheduled to be in play during the SWIBC Championship. “It’s not a common thing to bowl on the pattern prior to any event,” said Coach Jeffreys. “It was great for our players because we were able to put together a game plan for the weekend as a result of the game play on Friday night. The vibe was really good and the lane pattern was very scoreable but the players had to make good shots.”

The SWIBC Championship format was 9 games of individual team games qualifying then cut to the top four teams for best 3 out of 5 Baker Match Play.

The Crimson Storm started Game 1 with 949 that featured a 266 game by anchor Brandon Handog. “Brandon has continued to work on his game and figured out something quickly on the pattern,” said Coach Jeffreys. “The challenge on this pattern was to play down and in on the 42ft pattern. There was a little bit of miss room but if you tried to hook the pattern, the result was not good. We have worked really hard on improving our down and in game during practice and this pattern tested our ability to play down and in.”

After the Game 1 solid start, the Crimson Storm put together their highest set of the day, 1,007 which featured a nice bounce back by Myles Etherington with a 223 and clean games by Landon McConnell and Dylan Terada. “These events are all about filling frames and we battled some challenges Game 1 but seemed dialed in during Game 2,” said Coach Jeffreys.

Game 3, lane transition began to become an issue. The challenge to match up with the lane transition was difficult for the Crimson Storm as they earned their lowest game of Day 1, 870. “It happens,” said Coach Jeffreys. “Staying dialed in when the lane transition develops can excel teams to the top of the leaderboard if you make good decisions on moves or ball changes. We did not make good moves during Game 3.”

Game 4 was a much improved effort as Dylan Terada and Lilly Houle had their best games of the day, 226 for Terada and 193 for Houle. The Crimson Storm managed to get to 970 but, Texas A&M and University of Texas San Antonio had figured out the lane transition and were distancing themselves from the field. SNU was sitting in 3rd after Game 4.

Games 5 and 6 was a continuation of the lane transition grind. SNU earned 894 in Game 5 and 956 in Game 6. “We just could not get anything going in key frames,” said Coach Jeffreys. “It is so easy to leave a solid 10 pin or a pocket 7-10 in a key frame and the game goes from 220 to 190.” The cool part about the final two games of Day 1 is how well the team was working together to figure out ball changes and moves. The scores were not lights out but that was OK because the goal was to finish qualifying in the Top 4 and make it to Baker Match Play.” The Crimson Storm finished Day 1 in 3rd place behind Texas A&M and tournament leader, Texas – San Antonio.

Day 2 started off with 3 individual team games with carryover pins from Day 1. The Crimson Storm was off to a blistering start on Day 2. Dylan Terada went for 267 and Brandon Handog went 277 while Landon McConnell and Myles Etherington remained dialed in. SNU earned their highest game of the event, 1,061. “This was probable one of the best games of the year because the work that was done in the 10 minutes of practice on the fresh oil pattern,” said Coach Jeffreys. “The communication was so good between all the players and it showed.”

After 7 games, the Crimson Storm was well positioned to make the Semi-Finals. Now it was time to make and moves on the Day 2 lane transition. The move was made by Lilly Houle. The freshman from Las Vegas, Nevada earned her best two games of the day, 213 and 257. “The ball change to the Teal Rhino by Lilly was really good,” said Coach Jeffreys. “There was a zone around 8-11 that Lilly was dialed in on and she made great shots helping us secure the #3 position going into Baker Match Play.”

Texas – San Antonio was the leader after 9 games of qualifying followed by Texas A&M, SNU and Dallas Baptist. The Semi-Finals were set with SNU up against Texas A&M while UTSA battled Dallas Baptist.

The uniqueness of Baker Match Play is anything can happen. Five players from each team bowl twice in a single game. This is where five working as one makes Baker play success. The matches are best 3 out of 5.

Game 1 of SNU vs. Texas A&M was a discovery game for the Crimson Storm. The Aggies led most of the tournament and had the best performing player in the field, Aaron Coleman, who averaged 221.4 for the 9 games. “We just could not get any momentum going Game 1,” said Coach Jeffreys. SNU lost Game 1 216-179.

Game 2, the teams switch lanes and SNU caught on fire. There were two key frames on strikes and Lilly Houle and Dylan Terada were clutch in the Game 2 SNU win 231-198.

Game 3 was a struggle for the Crimson Storm. “We could not figure out the left lane,” said Coach Jeffreys. “There is strategy in Baker Play especially when the game is out of reach. We lost 222-161 but we figured something out the last two frames of Game 3 that pushed us into a good position going into Game 4.

Down 2 games to 1, the Crimson Storm was in a must win situation. Game 4 was crazy. Texas A&M was up 3 pins going into the 7 frame. SNU’s Lilly Houle threw a clutch strike in the 7th frame to keep the Crimson Storm alive. Then, SNU’s Dylan Terada left the difficult 3-6-9-10 in the 8th and converted the spare. This was followed by the Aggie four hole player leaving the 3-6-10 in the 9th, converting the 3-6-10 followed by SNU Brandon Handog leaving the 3-6-10 and converting the 3-6-10 and filling with a 9 count. Game 4 went down to the final frame by A&M’s anchor and tournament leader, Aaron Coleman. All Coleman needed to move A&M on to the Finals was to fill 19 pins in the 10th. Coleman’s first shot in the 10th, 3-6-10. Now, a conversion of the 3-6-10 and 9 pins give the win to the Aggies. Coleman converted the 3-6-10 and now 9 pins in the fill is a winner, 8 pins is a tie and 7 pins is a loser. Coleman had been dialed in the entire tournament but anything could happen and did happen. Coleman went wide right of his target area and left the 2-8-10 and the Crimson Storm had life with a 199-198 Game 4 victory. SNU was now tied with A&M going into Game 5 with a ton momentum.

The Aggies still had life too and struck 4 out of the first 6 frames but SNU matched the striking effort and remained clean through 7 frames. After a miscue by A&M with a split, Lilly Houle threw a clutch strike in the 8th frame to set things up to shutout the Aggies from moving on to the Finals. In the 9th frame, Dylan Terada stepped up and smashed the pocket and all ten pins went into the pit. 227-216 Game 5 win. The Crimson Storm was moving to the Finals against Dallas Baptist, who upset the #1 seed, Texas San Antonio.

“The Texas A&M match might have been one of the best matches in the history of this program,” said Coach Jeffreys. “So many clutch shots by McConnell, Etherington, Houle, Terada and Handog. There still was work to be done but to do what this team did against Texas A&M and win Game 4 and 5 was amazing.”

The Finals, Dallas Baptist, who upset UTSA in 5 Games against the Crimson Storm. “We made the decision to start on the left lane because we thought we had a little better look on the left lane,” said Coach Jeffreys. As it turned out, the Crimson Storm struggled during Game 1 on the left lane early in the game and never recovered losing Game 1 173-179. “The information we gathered from the late frames in Game 1 helped us out going into Game 2 and 3,” said Coach Jeffreys.

Game 2 was all SNU. The Crimson Storm started with strikes in the first 6 frames and never looked back winning Game 2 243-189.

Game 3 was back to the left lane and the struggle continued on the left lane. “We were coming up light in the pocket and the ball just was not making the turn similar to the right lane,” said Coach Jeffreys. “Again, the better teams figure the moves out quickly and we could not figure out the left lane during Game 3.” The Crimson Storm went down in Game 3 181-196

Once again, a must win situation for the Crimson Storm down 2-1 in the best of 5. “I really felt confident in the fact we were in a must win situation but we were locked in on the right lane,” said Coach Jeffreys. SNU started off the strikes in the first 6 frames and forced a Game 5 with a 251-215 victory in Game 5.

Game 5 for the hardware and the Championship. The question remained for SNU. Will the Crimson Storm make the right moves on the left lane to win the Championship? Things were a little dicey after starting Game 5 with an open frame. Then Landen McConnell threw his best shot of the weekend followed by a 10 pin spare by Lilly Houle, moving toward the clinching strikes by Dylan Terada and Brandon Handog. SNU wins the SWIBC Championship 3-2 with the Game 5 victory 215-176.

“This weekend was a special weekend for everyone involved ,” said Coach Jeffreys. “It's pretty cool to make some things happen and then get a few breaks along the way. A big thanks to CK Moore for the help this week and the friends and family that are a part of this bowling program that watched the live stream and helped us win! Thank you SNU Athletic Department for all the support. This was a fun weekend!”

More action to come for the Crimson Storm as they get ready for the ISC and the ITC in March.

Final Standings

1st - Southern Nazarene

2nd - Dallas Baptist

3rd - Texas A&M

4th - Texas - San Antonio