Bowling until their fingers are raw, the ISU bowling club members are busy polishing their skills in a quest to become the first team from Iowa State to bowl on the championship alleys in Tornado Alley.

“We’d really like to go to the [Intercollegiate Bowling Association] Nationals, which is kind of the NCAA Championships of college bowling,” club captain Brian Oelke said.

This season’s IBC National Championship will be held April 23-27 at River Lanes in Tulsa, Okla.

In order to make Nationals, the club must first qualify for the sectionals held on March 23-24 in St. Louis, Mo.

“If we step up late in the year, I really think we can do something at the IBCs,” Oelke said.

Oelke, a senior and second year club member, bases his optimism on the fact that the men’s team hasn’t lost much talent due to graduation and has gotten a boost from some newcomers.

The ISU men’s bowling team finished 74th out of 148 schools in College Bowling USA last season. The IBC tournament is comprised of only the top 64 schools of the CBUSA, which are then placed into four sectional tournaments: West, South, East and Midwest.

“Most of the good teams are in the Midwest,” club president Michael Crownhart said.

Which means, as Crownhart explained, that many schools on the periphery of the Midwest could end up in other sectionals to make sure each sectional tournament is of equal strength.

This aspect of the IBC tournament makes it very similar to college basketball’s NCAA tournament.

The club’s first test came this past weekend at the Midwest Collegiate Tournament in Wauwatosa, Wis., where Crownhart, a four-year veteran bowler at Iowa State, said the team finished 21st out of 41 teams in the men’s division.

“[We] started off with jitters; first tournament of the year, first tournament of college, ever, for some of the guys,” Crownhart said. “So, we started off pretty slowly.”

Oelke said the team bowled great the night before the tournament, when the alley allowed the college teams to practice for the next day, but the next day, the alley had changed the lane conditions.

“It was way different,” Oelke said. “We all just got tore up the next day. The lanes ate us alive.”

Crownhart said the team was able to move up from 26th on Saturday to 21th on Sunday, leaving the Cyclones right in the middle — just like the final standings last season.

The women’s team did not fare as well, finishing last out of 21 teams.

Team secretary Elissa Eibes, who has bowled with the club for two seasons, said there are reasons for the finish.

“We finished last, but unlike the guys’ team, we don’t bowl for competition. We’re not competitive about it,” she said.

Inexperience also played a part, Eibes said. It was the first collegiate bowling tournament for Stephanie Parra, Courtney Beals and Kristine Nelson.

Eibes has only been bowling for two years herself.

“I started when I met some of the people on the bowling club, and they were like ‘Oh, come bowl with us,'” Eibes said. “And I’m like, ‘Oh, I’ve never bowled before,’ and they were like, ‘Oh, that’s okay.'”

The women’s team captain, Kerri Karr, is the only member with much experience. Eibes said Karr did quite well at the tournament, and her games over 200 “help out when people are bowling 120.”

The women finished 94th nationally last season out of 94 teams.

However, unlike the top women’s teams, which bowled nine or 10 tournaments last season, the Cyclone women were only able to bowl in two.

Crownhart said the team has had trouble the last couple years trying to get enough girls involved to travel.

The infusion of Beals, Nelson, Parra and the more experienced Sherry Meyer should help complement Karr and Eibes.

The men’s team has plenty of depth with Oekle, Crownhart, Brian Stump, Eric Blabac, Jason Stowe, Lloyd Buckman, Don Rees, Brad Heitland and Grant McGraw.

According to the ISU bowling club’s Web site, bowling teams are comprised of five members, with two or three alternates.

Crownhart said the men’s team takes eight players to each tournament.

The women’s team currently takes all six women vying for travel spots.

Crownhart said the club has 32 members, so many are not members of the travel team.

Travel team members pay club fees of $80 to $100 per semester — about $20 more than non-travel members. But there are some perks for travel team members.

“The club pays for the hotels,” Crownhart said. “We try to find cheap hotels close to the tournament.”

The benefits don’t stop there.

“The guy’s shirts are sponsored by bowlingshirts.com,” Crownhart said.

Crownhart said the club also participates in fund raising to help generate funds.

“We just got finished with a magazine sale that managed to raise $1,200 for the club,” Crownhart said.

With money and members secured, the bowling team’s next tournament is Oct. 26-27 at the Mid-States Tournament in Springfield, Mo.