2023 USBC Open Championships gets underway in Reno

RENO, Nev. – The 119th edition of the United States Bowling Congress Open Championships kicked off Saturday for the first of 143 consecutive days of competition at the National Bowling Stadium.

The first 50 teams of more than 9,700 expected five-player groups hit the lanes at the 78-lane venue for the tournament’s 14th visit to Reno and 11th stop at the Taj Mahal of Tenpins.

The official opening ceremony for the 2023 event will take place Saturday, March 11 with local and bowling dignitaries welcoming the tournament back to Reno for the first time since 2016, but competition will take place throughout the week leading up to the festivities as the leaderboard begins to take shape.

The members of Virtue Bowling Supply 1 of Mesa, Arizona, and Silver Bullets Too of Beavercreek, Oregon, helped set a strong pace Saturday as they moved to the top of the standings in Regular Team and Standard Team, respectively.

Virtue Bowling Supply 1Led by Mark Myers’ 740 series, Virtue Bowling Supply 1 put together games of 1,129, 1,007 and 1,102 to post a 3,238 total to take the early lead in Regular Team. They were the only group to average more than 200 as a team on the opening squad.

Myers’ set included games of 268, 237 and 235, and he was joined Saturday by Riley Dempsey (686), Mathew Adragna (647), Mathew Jones (607) and Craig Spencer (558).

Silver Bullets TooIn Standard Team, Silver Bullets Too improved each game at the NBS and rolled games of 933, 944 and 976 to move into the top spot with 2,853.

The group was powered by Rick Stone’s 704 series, and he teamed with David Manecke (573), Charles Fick III (531), Julius Jones Jr. (529) and John Wyatt (516).

The 2023 USBC Open Championships will feature three average-based divisions in team, doubles, singles and all-events competition.

The Regular Division features bowlers with combined entering averages of 876 and above in team, 351 and above in doubles and 176 and above in singles and all-events.

Competitors in the Standard Division are comprised of teams with entering averages of 776-875, doubles tandems of 311-350 and features bowlers with averages of 156-175 in singles and all-events.

The Classified Division has teams with averages of 775 and below, doubles pairs of 310 and below and includes bowlers with averages of 155 and below for singles and all-events.

The top overall team performance for all three events (team, doubles and singles) over 45 games will claim the coveted Eagle awarded to the champion in Team All-Events.

Visit us on Facebook at the official USBC Open Championships page.