NAPERVILLE, Ill. — The College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin announced last week that women's bowling will become the 25^th sport sponsored at the championship level by the 75-year old league. The CCIW is just the second multi-sport conference to sponsor women's bowling and the first in the Midwest.
 
"I think this is a great opportunity for the conference and the sport of bowling as a whole," said second year Augustana head coach Seth Tegtmeier. "Having more colleges offer the sport of bowling means much more opportunities for students to compete at the college level and allows for the sport to grow, which makes me excited for the future of the sport."
 
Five core CCIW institutions will compete in women's bowling next season including Augustana, Carthage, Elmhurst, Illinois Wesleyan and North Central. Elmhurst began its women's bowling program in 2005-06, followed by Augustana and North Central in 2017-18. Carthage and Illinois Wesleyan begin play in 2020-21.
 
In addition, the CCIW welcomes three new associate members for women's bowling including Aurora University, (Aurora, Illinois), Marian University (Fond du Lac, Wisconsin) and Lakeland University, (Plymouth, Wisconsin). Women's bowling is the second CCIW associate membership for Lakeland as the Muskie men's wrestling program joined as an associate member in 2016.
 
With the addition of Aurora, Marian and Lakeland, the CCIW will have one over the required seven institutions to receive the NCAA AQ in the spring of 2023.
 
"As Augustana prepares for our fourth season of sponsoring women's bowling, I am pleased that the sport will be under the CCIW umbrella and in a position to earn an automatic qualifier for the NCAA Championship in two years," said Director of Athletics Mike Zapolski. "Augustana, Elmhurst and North Central have sponsored women's bowling for a few years, and Carthage and Illinois Wesleyan will be competing for the first time in 2020-21.  The continued growth of women's bowling at the small college level in the Midwest has been a positive development for the sport."
 
The addition of women's bowling brings the CCIW's total number of sponsored sports to 25, which puts the CCIW in the top three nationally amongst NCAA Division III conferences. This announcement marks the third time in five years that the CCIW will add to its sports sponsorship list as the conference began competing in men's & women's lacrosse in the spring of 2015 and men's volleyball last season.
 
Augustana's first season of women's bowling was 2017-18 and last year (2019-20) was the first year under Head Coach Seth Tegtmeier. The campaign was highlighted by a runner-up finish in the Central Intercollegiate Bowling Conference and the Vikings garnering four spots on the all-conference team, as well as Rookie and Coach of the Year honors. Augustana was declared the league's runner-up behind champion Wisconsin-Whitewater after the CIBC Championship—originally scheduled for March 20-22 in DeKalb, Illinois—was cancelled due to fears over COVID-19. The conference used regular season statistical metrics to determine the top two places.
 
Sophomore Sky Stoutt (United Township HS, East Moline, Ill.) and junior Taylor Kies (Oswego HS, Oswego, Ill.) were selected All-CIBC first team, with sophomore Abigail Clark (Wilmot HS, Twin Lakes, Ill.) and freshman Camryn Feehan (Joliet West HS, Crest Hill, Ill.) named to the second team. Feehan also took home the league's Rookie of the Year award and Tegtmeier received Coach of the Year recognition. In addition, Stoutt and Kies were named the conference's respective Bowlers of the Month for January and March.
 
Augustana also landed a trio of players on the 31-person Central Intercollegiate Bowling Conference (CIBC) all-academic team for the 2019-20 season. Clark, Kies and junior Alex Buffington (Harlem HS, Loves Park, Ill.) were the Vikings who were honored. In order to win all-academic honors in the CIBC, the individual student-athlete has to be a member in good standing on the team and have a grade point average of 3.40 or better for the 2019-20 school year.