Youngstown State junior bowlers Madison Marks and Kirsten Moore have been honored by the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Team. The announcement was made on Tuesday. This recognition makes Madison Marks and Kirsten Moore the second and third members of YSU’s bowling program to earn this honor. They join Sarah Florence, who was named to the 2021 Academic All-District and Academic All-America teams. The Penguin Tandem is also included in the At-Large Academic All-America ballot, which encompasses sports like women’s beach volleyball, women’s volleyball, and women’s volleyball, as well as bowling, women’s crew/rowing, men’s and women’s fencing, women’s field hockey, men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s gymnastics, men’s and women’s ice hockey, men’s and women’s lacrosse, men’s and women’s rifles, men’s and women’s skiing, men’s and women’s volleyball, and men and women’s water polo and wrestling.
Madison Marks is the first Penguin to receive All-Southland Bowling League first-team honors and was also recognized for the prestigious All-American award by the National Ten-Pin Coaches Association. Hailing from Maplewood, Minnesota, she played a significant role as YSU’s main anchor. Madison set single-season school records in the traditional format of average (209.61), pinfall (11,948), games played (57), and 200 games played (31). She smashed her all-time average record over 4 pins, and her overall frame average of 20.34 broke the second-best record in school history. Madison was named the MVP of PVAMU Invitational and was named Southland’s Bowler of the Month for January. In February, she broke the school record for the best five-game set (1,137) and tournament average (227.4) at the Big Red Invitational in Nebraska and won the all-tournament team award. Madison led the tournament by averaging 230.5 points per game in traditional matches and finished the season averaging 20.44 points in Baker’s slot at the Lansing Regional. Madison is also a Criminal Justice major with a GPA of 3.94, a two-time NTCA All-Academic Scholar and Athlete, and a member of the Southland Bowling League All-Academic Team twice. Her record of earning 4.0 GPA for 5 of 6 semesters got her named to the YSU Dean’s list.
Kirsten Moore was named Best All-American by the NTCA after posting her season-best, the singles in show history. A native of Tallmadge, Ohio, she had an average of 202.77 points in traditional play, which was fourth best in school history. She knocked down 11,355 pins in 56 games and broke 200 in 29 games, which was second only to Madison. Kirsten also had Baker’s frame average of 20.27, the second-most significant ever for the penguins, and her overall frame average of 20.28 was the third highest in school history. Kirsten was named to the All-Tournament Team twice during the season and has four Top 10 finishes. Her best result was a 5th-place finish at the season-opening MOTIV Penguin Classic, which earned her All-Tournament Team honors. She was also an All-Tournament selection at the Northeast Classic, where she finished 9th. Her other top 10 finishes were the MOTIV Ladyjack Classic and the Big Red Invitational. She finished her junior season playing traditional bowling at the Lansing Regional, averaging 219 pins per game and 20.9 pins per frame in the Baker format, contributing to YSU’s runner-up finish. Earlier this month, Kirsten received her bachelor’s degree in English and graduated with a 4.0 in three years as a member of Honors College. The NTCA named Kirsten as Her All-Academic Scholar Athlete, and also awarded her a membership in the Southland Bowling League All-Academic Team in both her qualifying seasons. Kirsten has been named to the Dean’s List for all her six semesters at YSU and will start working on her master’s degree at Youngstown State University in the fall.