College

St. Catharine College may not have been at the top of the leaderboard of the Mid-South Conference Golf Tournament, but its collaboration with a local businessman and the owners of Maywood Golf Course made the Bardstown community a winner this week.

The conference tournament was held Sunday-Tuesday at Maywood with the men playing all three days and the women only the final two.

University of the Cumberlands swept first-place honors in the tournament.

When St. Catharine College decided five years ago to join the prestigious Mid-South Conference, visions of hoisting a championship trophy in baseball, soccer, softball basketball, volleyball, etc, danced in the minds of college officials. At that time the Patriots had no bowling teams.

But bowling was added to the athletic program four years ago. And now, the first Mid-South Conference championship at St. Catharine belongs to the Patriots’ women’s bowling team.

The St. Catharine College Patriots continued their late season momentum with two men’s home victories, topping UVA-Wise 71-63 Thursday and the nation’s No. 7 team with a 93-90 win against Pikeville on Saturday.

The two Mid-South Conference victories extended the Patriots’ winning streak to six games as they improved to 12-10 overall and 8-8 in conference play. That puts J.T. Burton’s team in a tie for sixth place in the MSC with the University of the Cumberlands, two games behind fifth-place Campbellsville.

The St. Catharine College men had only won back-to-back games once this year before traveling to Rio Grande two weeks ago. That trip resulted in a win that started the Patriots’ current four-game Mid-South Conference winning streak, two of those victories coming against nationally ranked opponents.