Sterling Heights, Mich. – The No. 3 ranked Saint Xavier University men's bowling team tied for ninth place out of 12 teams at the NAIA Men's Bowling National Championships in Sterling Heights, Mich. this weekend at Five Star Lanes. On Thursday, SXU competed in Baker Games to determine the seeding of the tournament and they racked up the third-most pin total with 4,847. Representing the Cougars were senior Edward Burgos (St. Charles, Ill./St. Charles East), junior Michael Harmon Jr. (Rockledge, Fla./Indiana Tech/Edgewood), junior Timothy Novak (Orland Park, Ill./Sandburg), junior Nicholas Sternes (Buffalo Grove, Ill./Stevenson), sophomore Daniel Esguerra (Chicago, Ill./Lane Tech), sophomore Bobby Habetler (Park Ridge, Ill./Indiana Tech/St. Patrick), freshman Jason Laba (Lockport, Ill./Lockport Township) and freshman Tyler Pedersen (Oak Forest, Ill./Oak Forest).

• Saint Xavier and the other top-four seeds (No. 1 Lawrence Tech University (Mich.), No. 2 Marian University (Ind.) and No. 4 Indiana Tech University) earned byes into the second round that took place on March 22 in the double-elimination tournament.
• SXU faced No. 11 Milligan University (Tenn.) after the Buffaloes swept No. 6 Tennessee Wesleyan in four games (203-148, 214-167, 217-189, 214-204). The Cougars lost to MU in five games (190-213, 156-181, 217-233, 209-182, 222-228) and fell into the elimination bracket.
• In the elimination bracket following their setback, Saint Xavier bowled against No. 12 Grand View University (Iowa). SXU won game one, 278-172, before the Vikings won two in a row (188-213, 200-214). The Cougars evened the match with a 218-172 win in game four and both teams traded win (150-169, 209-194) forcing a seventh game. Game seven resulted in a 188-188 tie, forcing a tiebreaker the Grand View won, knocking Saint Xavier out of the tournament.
• No. 7 SCAD Savannah (Ga.) won the National Championship after they defeated Indiana Tech twice in the championship match. IIT topped the Bees in the semifinals in seven games Friday evening to advance to the finals. SCAD took down No. 5 University of Pikeville (Ky.) in the elimination bracket finals in five games. After being tied 3.5-3.5 after seven games in the first championship match, the Bees won the tiebreaker to force the if-necessary match and winning in five games for their first National Championship.