LEXINGTON, Ky. - The Davenport men's bowling team made a splash at the NAIA Invitational over the weekend. The NAIA considers bowling as an emerging sport and therefore this tournament serves as the "unofficial" national championships. The Panthers finished fifth out of 20 teams through 24 games of qualifying before going into bracket format. Davenport totaled 4,724 pins in qualifying and had a stretch of four games over 200 in the middle of the second dozen games to lift them into the fifth spot.

The Panthers took care of 12th place Martin Methodist in the first match of bracket play winning 194-152, 258-190 and 159-150. They then bowled against 4th place Pikeville in the next round and lost in the best of five by scores of 245-163, 173-177, 203-232, 203-199 and 133-202.

In the consolation bracket, DU defeated 16th place Hastings in four games by scores of 169-209, 233-184, 220-183 and 198-162. They then took out first place St. Ambrose in four games by scores of 214-180, 167-193, 208-188 and 180-179. The tournament run ended against sixth place Midland (Neb.) in four games by scores of 191-235, 150-150, 177-230 and 173-202.