From winning tournaments and being one of the best spare shooting teams in the country to logging the most community service hours and earning the highest team GPA at Wright State, the Raiders have their sights set on success on the lanes, in the classroom and on campus this season.
After a year competing in the NCAA ranks, the Wright State women are poised to improve upon an inaugural season that included winning three tournament titles, including their first NCAA win at the Mountie Roundup.
“One of our goals this year is to finish in the top five in a full-field NCAA tournament — a big 20-team tournament,” Fleck said.
There have been a few growing pains as the former club team made the transition to an NCAA program.
“There are some great NCAA programs out there,” Fleck said. “There used to be maybe five great teams when we’d go to a tournament and now, there are a dozen or more competing at a very high level.”
The Raiders were pleased with their first NCAA season as they finished 46th out of 96 teams in the NCAA RPI power rankings. After graduating only a single bowler and adding several talented freshmen, the goals become more ambitious.
The Raiders want to finish in the top 35 this season in the NCAA rankings and increase the team GPA to at least 3.25. They also want to exceed the study table hour requirements and raise more money than they did last year. The upcoming Wright Day to Give (www.givecampus.com/n68nqy) is one way to do that.
Graduate student Alex Drsek and junior Makenzie Gossett are the veterans on the young Raiders team.
“They’ve been here the longest and they understand the culture,” Fleck said. “They also represent our team on the Wright State Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC).”
Fleck will again be joined by returning assistant coach Colleen McKee – in her sixth season with the Raiders staff – and first-year assistant coach Alyssa Hatton. Both McKee and Hatton competed for the Raiders and were members of the Collegiate Club National Championship team in 2015.
The Wright State women’s season gets underway on Oct. 7 at the Ohio Bowling Conference tournament in Columbus. The Raiders faithful won’t have to go far to see the team in action as the University of Pikeville will host the Orange & Black Classic on Oct. 22 at Poelking Lanes South and the Raider Classic will be held Nov. 11-12 at Poelking Woodman Lanes.
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