Team USA Trials, Day 1 -- Jan. 3, 2022
The five-day competition to determine the United States men and women's national teams is underway in Las Vegas.
Team USA Trials is among the most prestigious amateur bowling tournaments in the country, as 161 of the top men and 125 of the top women athletes will compete for spots on the adult and junior national team. The tournament was last held in 2020, a few months before COVID-19 proliferated across the United States.
The event, held at the Gold Coast Bowling Center in Las Vegas, features a unique format: Bowlers earn points based on their finishing position each day. (Ex. First place receives one point; 100th place receives 100 points.) Each day consists of a six-game block.
After five days, the bowler with the lowest number of points wins; ties will be broken by whichever player can eat the most Oreos dipped in mayonnaise without puking. (It’s true! Trust me.)
Amateur and youth players will also compete for the US Amateur Championship. The three highest finishers among amateur and youth bowlers compete in a stepladder finals after the final squad of competition, roughly estimated at 10:30 p.m. EST on Friday, Jan. 7.
The top-four men and women finishers — over the age of 18, as a new rule specifies — will earn automatic berths onto Team USA. Two additional men and women will be selected by the committee. The same qualification rules apply to the top-four youth men and women, again with two at-large selections.
The committee tends to select players near the top of the standings, often the players in fifth and sixth place, but have made exceptions in the past based on roster construction (ex. having too many lefties) or to “get their guy,” so to speak. Half of the junior national team is determined at previous summer’s Junior Gold Championships, so the adult team often makes more than two at-large selections to fill out their roster.
That’s enough throat-clearing. Onto the reason why you clicked on this email or link:
Men’s Day 1 Overall Leaders
1. Jake Peters (Pro) — +181
2. T.J. Rock (Youth) — +148
3. Justin O'Shaughnessy (P) — +140
4. Alec Keplinger (Y) — +132
T-5. Steven Badovinac (Amateur) — +118
T-5. Cameron Crowe (Y) — +118
Men’s Day 1 Youth Leaders
1. T.J. Rock (2nd overall) — +148
2. Alec Keplinger (4th) — +132
3. Cameron Crowe (T-5th) — +118
4. Zach Greim (7th) — +117
5. Rylan Breese (9th) — +98
6. Anthony Neuer (10th) — +88
7. Solomon Salama (T-18th) — +53
8. Carter Street (T-18th) — +53
I went a bit deeper for the youth standings because the official standings do not separate youth players from amateurs and because some youth players may have already qualified for Junior Team USA.
Jake Peters, the 2021 PBA Steve Nagy Sportsmanship Award winner, led the opening squad for the men, but the excellence of young talent stole the show on Day 1. Youth bowlers claimed six of the top 10 spots on Day 1, including a pair of familiar names: Wichita State’s Alec Keplinger and St. Ambrose’s Cameron Crowe, the 2020 US Amateur Champion.
Keplinger’s Shockers defeated Crowe’s Fighting Bees in the 2021 Intercollegiate Team Championships this past May. But Crowe would get some semblance of revenge when the two squared off in the U20 Junior Gold Championship match two months later, besting Keplinger for the title.
To add to the impressiveness of Crowe’s fifth place finish on Day 1 of Team USA Trials, BowlTV’s Aaron Smith and Emil Williams Jr. told me Crowe missed the practice squad on Sunday due to several flight cancellations in the Chicago area. A number of other Midwesterners found themselves in a similar boat, Smith and Williams Jr. said; Nathan Stubler managed a facsimile of Crowe’s success finishing 12th, but Kristopher Prather, the 2020 PBA Tournament of Champions winner, struggled and sits outside the top-100 after Day 1.
A 138 finale dropped defending champion Matt Russo down a few spots, but he still managed a 25th place finish. Check out the full standings here.
Women’s Day 1 Overall Leaders
1. Alexis Neuer (P) — +108
2. Breanna Clemmer (P) — +104
3. Shannon Pluhowsky (P) — +103
4. Taylor Bailey (P) — +86
5. Lindsay Brown (AM) — +82
Women’s Day 1 Youth Leaders
1. Brooke Roberts (8th overall) — +56
2. Annalise O'Bryant (10th) — +35
3. Melia Mitskavich (13th) — +26
4. Kayla Smith (15th) — +9
5. Paige Peters (17th) — +3
6. Katharina Mente (20th) — -2
7. Morgan Brookover (22nd) — -3
8. Alyssa Ballard (25th) — -12
Experience paid dividends on Day 1 for the women as the pros locked down the top four spots. Alexis Neuer’s 269-247 finish catapulted her into the pole position by a mere four pins over Breanna Clemmer, the two-time reigning US Amateur Champion. Clemmer has since made the leap to the professional tour.
Two youth bowlers finished inside the top ten: Brooke Roberts and Annalise O’Bryant, both former Junior Gold champions. O’Bryant opened her block with the front-10 and a 289 game.
Fresh off her historic three-title rookie season on the PWBA Tour, Stephanie Zavala finished in 57th at -76; Bryanna Coté, the 2021 PWBA Player of the Year, finished in 14th at +22.
Kelly Kulick, the defending champion, will not be competing on the lanes this week, but she will play a vital role in the event as the new head coach of Junior Team USA.
Check out the full standings here.
The women will be back in action tomorrow morning at 11 a.m. EST, while the men will have an extended break until 6 p.m. EST.