Five Aggies Earn NTCA Academic Honors

Five Aggies Earn NTCA Academic Honors

EAST GREENSBORO, N.C. (Aug. 9, 2019) – Five North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University bowling team student-athletes have been named to the National Tenpin Coaches Association (NTCA) All-Academic Team.

Sophomore Ericka Quesada-Gomis led the team with a 4.0 GPA in finance, followed by sophomore Chloe Jones with a 3.94 GPA in liberal studies, sophomore Brionna Thompson with a 3.68 in English, senior Tyra Merritt with a 3.62 in liberal studies and junior Ana Olaya with a 3.47 in journalism and mass communication.

Last season, Quesada-Gomis led the team with a 199.79 pinfall average in 38 games, with 16 games of scoring more than 200. Merritt averaged 179.28 in 25 matches.

Olaya, who was named an NTCA All-American honorable mention for 2018-19 and is a two-time Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) first-team member, led the Aggies last season with 10,090 total pinfall and recorded an average of 190.38 over 53 games, with 19 games of scoring more than 200. She earned MEAC rookie of the year honors during the 2017-18 season.

As a team, the Aggies posted a 3.22 GPA for the 2018-19 season.

“We are very proud of our team,” N.C. A&T coach Kim Terrell-Kearney said. “We not only want to excel in bowling, but it is also important that we do well in the classroom.”

The N.C. A&T bowling team is widely considered one of the best in the nation. It has been to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournament twice in the last five season and in 2015 won the International Team Championship (ITC) national title, sponsored by the United States Bowling Congress.

The team won the MEAC title in 2018. After splitting the first six games in the 2019 MEAC Championship, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore edged the Aggies 208-200.

The Aggies finished the season ranked No. 8 in the final NTCA rankings.

A team must have a minimum 3.2 GPA and student-athletes must have a minimum 3.4 GPA to qualify for the NTCA All-Academic Team. Overall, 28 teams and 256 student-athletes were represented on the team.