SJSU Bowling Team

Spartan Bowling Team Takes Eighth at Nationals

Jason Rehfeld, captain of the Spartan bowling team, practiced his slider Tuesday at the Student Union Bowling Center. Rehfeld has an average score of 205 per game. Photos by Troy Bayless / Daily Staff [Click to enlarge]

Left to right, Phil Campit, Cliff Conard, Nolen Velasco and Jason Rehfeld, members of the Spartan bowling team, converse between frames. The team recently returned from the Intercollegiate Bowling Championships in Grand Rapids, Mich., where it placed eigh [Click to enlarge]

“Most people see bowling as throwing a ball down a lane,” Rehfeld said. “It’s more than that. You have to consider the oil on the lane. You’re bowling on a blind surface. It’s like putting in the dark, where your ball and the hole are lit, but everything else is pitch black. You just go on experience.”

Rehfeld and five of his teammates recently returned from the Intercollegiate Bowling Championships held in Grand Rapids, Mich., from April 18 through April 22, where the team placed eighth, said Lindsey Wong, the team’s coach.

The team played in a collaborative style of playing called “baker,” Rehfeld said. The style calls for the score to be derived from team’s performance, instead of individual scores.

The 10 frames are split between five members of the team with a sixth teammate on reserve, Rehfeld said. The first bowler rolls the first and sixth frames, the second bowls the second and seventh, the third bowls the third and eighth, and so on.

The tournament started with a qualification round that allowed the top 16 teams out of a field of 200 to advance to the national championships.

“We were really tired the qualifying day,” said Rasik Desai, a graduate student on the team. “We had a three-hour layover in Detroit and ended up getting to Grand Rapids at around noon.”

The team placed 16th in the qualifying round, which was lower than where they would have liked to have placed, Wong said, but enough to advance to the national championships.

According to Rehfeld, the qualifying round started at 9:30 a.m. and continued straight through to 9:30 p.m., with only a few breaks to eat.

“It’s not just walking up and throwing the ball,” Rehfeld said. “The amount of emotion our team bowls with makes it physically and emotionally draining.”

Going into the championships, Phil Campit, a freshman on the team, said he and the rest of his teammates felt as if they may not have as much talent as teams who recruit players.

“We definitely felt like we were going in as the underdogs,” Campit said. “We felt we had a shot,” he said. “We had a lot of talent but not as much as teams that have the luxury of recruitment.”

The SJSU bowling team lacked a lot of the financial support that other rival teams had going into the tournament, Rehfeld said.

The team raises $1,000 to $1,200 per person every year, Rehfeld said.

The team members felt they were one of the youngest teams competing in the tournament.

“Our team has a real diverse mix of ages ranging from 17 to 27 years old,” Desai said. “Because of this, it took us a while to mesh.”

While in tournament play, the team pulled together to defeat some higher-ranked teams, Wong said.

One of the team’s greater moments of the tournament was against Arizona State University, which was ranked second in the nation at the time, Rehfeld said. The winner of the match moved on in the tournament, while the loser was eliminated from play.

“Our anchor struck out in the 10th frame, which is three strikes, to beat ASU and save ourselves from elimination,” Rehfeld said.

Unfortunately, the team was defeated in the next round by Florida State University, leaving the Spartans in eighth place.

“I was happy with how we placed,” said Nolen Velasco, a sophomore on the bowling team. “We beat some really good teams, as well as eliminating the No. 2-ranked team.”

Along with their success in the tournament, two of the Spartans were recognized for their outstanding performance over the season.

The top 15 players are honored every year based on their performance throughout the year, Wong said. They are picked for one of three teams in the Coaches Association All-American Team.

Freshman Phil Campit was nominated, and freshman Darren Francisco was picked to be on the third team, Wong said.

Overall, the team finished the season at ninth in the nation out of 200 teams by the Bowlers Writers Association.