OKLAHOMA CITY (Feb. 20, 2019) – Both Oklahoma Christian teams learned Wednesday they have been chosen to compete in the U.S. Bowling Congress' Intercollegiate Team Sectionals, the first step of postseason play for collegiate bowling.

OC's first-year club programs, coached by James Hayes, will compete March 8-10 at USA Bowl in Dallas. The top four finishers in each of four sectional events will advance to the Intercollegiate Team Championships, set for April 17-20 at Poelking Lanes South in Dayton, Ohio.

Eighty men's teams and 64 women's teams will be in the sectional fields, which were announced on a live webcast on Bowl.com.

Competing in the women's sectional will be No. 3 seed Wichita State, No. 8 Midland (Texas), No. 11 Newman (Kan.), No. 14 William Penn (Iowa), No. 23 McKendree (Ill.), No. 25 Ottawa (Kan.), No. 29 Baker (Kan.), No. 33 Morningside (Iowa), No. 35 West Texas A&M, No. 38 Kansas Wesleyan, No. 48 OC, No. 59 Alabama-Birmingham and No. 65 Iowa Central.

In the men's sectional will be No. 3 McKendree, No. 5 Wichita State, No. 10 William Penn, No. 14 Midland, No. 18 Newman, No. 22 West Texas A&M, No. 31 San Jose State, No. 32 Grand Canyon, No. 34 OC, No. 38 Iowa Central, No. 39 Nebraska, No. 40 Nevada-Las Vegas, No. 43 Kansas Wesleyan, No. 52 Baker, No. 55 Morningside, No. 63 Ottawa, No. 66 Louisiana State, No. 69 Arizona State, No. 72 Central Missouri and No. 76 Fresno State.

"Our team goal coming into the season as a new program was to qualify for sectionals," Hayes said. "We did exactly that. I am proud of the men's and women's teams for all the hard work they have put in this year. We are headed to the Dallas sectional which is loaded with talent so we will need to be at our best if we want a shot at an upset.

"We have just over two weeks to prepare and a lot of work needs to take place. We will gather the teams tomorrow and discuss our plan of attack to get ready. I believe our teams have the talent to pull an upset but it must be a full team effort. It is going to be a busy couple of weeks for us."

Sectional assignments are based on Team Ranking System (TRS) points earned throughout the season. USBC Collegiate attempts to place no more than two of the top eight schools and no more than four of the top 16 schools in a sectional based on the final TRS totals. Sectional qualifier fields take geographic distance, economics and field size into consideration.

The sectional format consists of 32 Baker games each day for a total of 64 Baker games. Total pinfall for the 64 games will determine which teams advance to the ITC.

The four hosting centers also will conduct qualifying sessions for the Intercollegiate Singles Championships on March 8. Student-athletes at each of the four sectional events will bowl six games with 24 men and 24 women – the top four men and top four women at each sectional plus eight additional individuals based on field size – advancing to the national singles tournament on April 16-17 (qualifying and match play) and April 20 (semifinals and finals), also in Dayton, Ohio.

OC's men have won two tournaments, Southwest Intercollegiate Bowling Circuit V in Richardson, Texas, and the SWIBC Championships in Shawnee. Freshman Josh Imhoff earned SWIBC player-of-the-year and rookie-of-the-year honors, while fellow freshmen Sam Butler and Andrew McCann also received All-SWIBC recognition.

The women won the SWIBC II tournament in Amarillo, Texas, in September. Sophomore Melissa McConnell and freshman Taylore Ryan received All-SWIBC honors.