Men's Team USA Takes Two Golds and One Bronze in the Final Two Days of the PABCON Championships

"We had a good run this week, and it's hard to be too disappointed. This format is a total crapshoot and for us to get a couple medals is OK. We're always disappointed when we don't win, but we brought home the gold in the important events."

--Bill O'Neill

Congratulations to Men's Team USA for winning the gold medal in the five-person team event and to Bill O'Neill (photo above) for taking the gold in all events and co-winning, with Chris Barnes, the bronze medal in the Masters event of the now concluded PABCON Championships in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Team USA ended up winning four out of six golds, 1 silver, and 1 bronze medal. Meanwhile, Canada's Dan MacLelland, who shined on the PBA Tour last season, took the gold in the Masters event.

After the five-person team competition that Team USA narrowly won over Puerto Rico, Chris Barnes had this to say:

"There's no doubt that the talent in the American Zone has gotten stronger and that showed today. It's always a good feeling when you get in a close situation and win. The bottom line is when it came down to the last game, we bowled well enough to pull it out while everyone was scrambling."

If Barnes is right, the era of Team USA's dominance in international bowling competitions, like its dominance in many other areas, may be swiftly drawing to a close. But it was fun while it lasted.

You can click here for the round-by-round results of the Masters competition.

PABCON Men's Championships Doubles Team Results

"After the performance this morning, we knew it was either us or nobody for a medal. It was just time for us to rise to the occasion so the team didn't get shut out."

--Patrick Allen

After sweeping all the gold medals in the last two PABCON Championships and 25 out of 30 since 1997, it wasn't looking good for Men's Team USA this year. Mike Fagan was the only member to medal in the singles event that opened the competition on Monday, taking a bronze, and after the first squad of doubles teams bowled yesterday, no doubles team from the USA was in contention to medal. The only USA team remaining to bowl in the afternoon squad was the team of Patrick Allen and Walter Ray Williams Jr. And this didn't look particularly promising given the fact that Walter Ray had finished in 20th place in singles.

However, Williams Jr. began the six game set with a sizzling 298 and 278, and he and Patrick Allen continued on to obliterate the PABCON Championships doubles record and win the gold medal by almost 200 pins over the Canadian team of Dan "The Man" MacLelland and Michael Schmidt that took the silver medal. Williams shot 1456 and Allen shot 1461 for a combined total of 2917 and a combined average of 243 on a condition that saw many teams struggling. For example, the team of Chris Barnes and Bill O'Neill finished in 11th place and averaged 214 for their six game set.

By the way, Patrick Allen leads all bowlers halfway through All Events, Walter Ray Williams Jr. is fifth, Mike Fagan sixth, Chris Barnes tenth, Bill O'Neill eleventh, and Wes Malott is eighteenth. Canada's Dan MacLelland is in second, just eight pins behind Allen.

Today features trios action. Team USA's two trios teams consist of Barnes, Fagan, and O'Neill on one team and Malott, Williams, and Allen on the other.

You can check all the results so far here.

Kelly Kulick Dominates Pan Am Trials (With Video)

Last year, Kelly Kulick could seemingly do no wrong. She enjoyed what was arguably the greatest season any bowler has ever had. I certainly can't think of a female bowler ever having a greater season than Kelly's last year when she won the PBA Tournament of Champions, the Women's U.S. Open, the USBC Queens, a PBA regional championship, the Malaysian Open, and placed high in other important national and international tournaments and led the women in virtually all statistical categories. It was a spectacular season by any reasonable person's standards.

This year has been more challenging. Kulick made it to match play but finished 49th in the TOC, made it to match play but got eliminated fairly early in the Queens, and has reported some trouble with her physical game. Yet, she still has the Women's U.S. Open ahead of her, and lest you think her best bowling is behind her, take a look at her recent performances in the 2011 Team USA Women's Pan American Trials at the International Training and Research Center in Arlington, Texas. Kulick asserted complete dominance over her fellow Women's Team USA members on all four international oil patterns put out for them.

Now that's versatility for you and proof positive that Kelly Kulick is still a bowling force to be roundly reckoned with.

You can read the USBC's press release about the Pan American Trials here and watch videos of all four eight game blocks below.

Video streaming by Ustream

Video streaming by Ustream