WILMINGTON, Ohio – The Quaker Bowl will stay in Wilmington for the third consecutive year. Wilmington College defeated Earlham College 7-4 in varsity sports in during the 2019-20 academic year to earn the third Quaker Bowl victory since the trophy became a year-long competition between the two Quakers institutions.
Originally, the Quaker Bowl was awarded to the winner of the most recent football or men's basketball game. With the re-creation, the Quaker Bowl spans the entire athletic year and over all contested sports. A victory in a sport will earn the winning institution a point, and the school with the most points at the end of the year will have possession of the traveling trophy. In sports that the schools play multiple times, the institution that wins the series claims the point. If there is a tie, the schools split the point. Each sport can yield the winning institution no more than one point regardless of how many competitions occur within that athletic year.
Wilmington won the first two points of the year via higher finishes in the Quaker Open, a cross country meet held at the WC Cross Country Course on Aug. 30. Earlham had a chance to salvage a tie in the sport, but Wilmington once again out-performed its Quaker adversary, this time at the NCAA Division III Great Lakes Regional Meet hosted by Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Nov. 16. Earlham scored its first point of the year via a four-set victory over Wilmington on Sept. 10. The Green & White did win the first set in the match, but lost three straight sets that followed.
One day later, Wilmington extended its lead to 3-1 courtesy of a 5-0 blowout in men's soccer at Williams Stadium. WC netted five first-half goals and outshot Earlham 26-3 in the contest. A week later, in the women's soccer contest also at Williams Stadium, the result was the same, though the game was much more contested. A Madison Wiedeman goal early in the second half proved to be the only goal as WC went up 4-1 after the fall sports season.
In the winter, both teams scored two points. On the basketball court, Earlham dug itself out of a 15-point deficit in the first half to win the men's contest 79-76 at Hermann Court on Nov. 25. The WC women, thanks to over 50 percent shooting from the field, built a 23-point lead after 30 minutes and held on to win 82-68 on Dec. 2. The schools also split during the indoor track & field season. At the OAC-HCAC-NCAC Challenge hosted by Wittenberg University on Jan. 25, the WC women and EC men each finished higher.
Each school also scored one point in the shortened spring season amid the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. Earlham earned a 9-0 shutout win in baseball on March 3 while Wilmington countered with a 10-7 men's lacrosse triumph the following day.
"We're excited to win the Quaker Bowl this year, but happier that this rivalry between two Quaker schools has reignited," Vice President for Athletic Administration/Director of Athletics Terry Rupert said. " We look forward to continued great competition with Earlham in the future."
Year four of the rivalry will begin in the fall of 2020.
