Women's Bowling | 10/15/2026 2:56:00 PM
GREENSBORO, NC – The North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University's bowling team is off to a resounding start to the 2026-27 season, and so is senior
Payton Hartgrove.
Hartgrove won the 2026 Colonial Classic hosted by Tulane University over the weekend, helping the Aggies finish second overall with an 11-2 record. The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) rewarded her efforts on Thursday by naming her bowler of the week. Thursday marked the conference's first weekly bowling honors of the season. Hartgrove earned her third career MEAC weekly honor after the Alabama State transfer won two bowler-of-the-week accolades last season.
Over the weekend, Hartgrove won individual medalist honors with a total pinfall of 1,108 and an average of 221.60 in five games. It marked her first career individual win at a non-conference event as an Aggie and A&T's first non-conference individual winner since Lauren Tomaszewski won the Prairie View A&M Invitational in 2022. With the individual title, Hartgrove led the Aggies to impressive wins on Saturday. The Aggies beat seventh-ranked Louisiana Tech 1,063-979 behind a 245 total pinfall from Hartgrove. She bowled a 255 in A&T's 982-900 win over Emmanuel before helping the Aggies take down her former school, Alabama State, by producing a 216 total pinfall.
Hartgrove bowled 23 Baker format matches at the Penguin Classic. She shot a 41.7 strike percentage, converted 65.7 percent of her spares, and made 76.7 percent of her makeable spares. During Baker play, she posted an 80 percent overall fill percentage and knocked down 9-plus pins on 61.7 percent of her first-bowl attempts.
During traditional play, she averaged 9.20 pins on her first bowl attempt and knocked down 9-plus pins 82 percent of the time. She also had a 54 percent strike percentage during traditional play. The Aggies head to Ohio this weekend for the 2026 Chelsea Gilliam Penguin Classic, hosted by Youngstown State University.
