Ausec leads after Day 1 at 2025 USBC Senior Queens
April 11, 2025
Qualifying Results through Round 2
LAS VEGAS – Dana Ausec of Colorado Springs, Colorado, is in a familiar spot after the first two rounds of qualifying at the 2025 United States Bowling Congress Senior Queens, which is being contested at Sam’s Town Bowling Center in Las Vegas.
The 2023 Senior Queens champion had a 10-game total of 2,250, good for an average of 225, and currently leads the field by a comfortable margin, with 128 pins between her and Liz Johnson of Niagara Falls, New York, in second place at 2,122.
Carol Norman of Houston is third at 2,120, Rino Sabo of Bennett, Colorado, holds fourth place with 2,109, while Stephanie Van Ness of Anchorage, Alaska, rounds out the top five with 2,105.
Jody Scheerer of Orlando, Florida (2,100), Lynda Barnes of Denton, Texas (2,070), Jodi Woessner of Oregon, Ohio (2,069), Kathy Ledford of Boise, Idaho (2,030), and Genie Franklin of Frisco, Texas (2,028), hold spots six through ten. Ledford is guaranteed a spot in the double-elimination bracket as the defending champion and has so far improved her positioning for the bracket.
Holding the final spot for match play is Raelyn Hazen of Roy, Utah, who has a 1,906 total.
Ausec only had one game below 200 on the day, with qualifying going as well as it did due to being able to see the picture clearly. She had an extra pair of eyes with her as her husband was in attendance.
“In the past, the transition has been my downfall because I’ve sometimes missed it but today my husband and I did a really good job of catching it,” said Ausec. “We made the right moves and right ball changes to stay with it, the one pair that I caught where I shot 180 it was just one lane that got really tricky. Other than that game, it was a really good, solid day for me.”
Ausec is in good position to make the match-play bracket as well as her third consecutive stepladder finals, but is keeping her focus on the next qualifying block.
“Any time you bowl a tournament like this, (making the stepladder) is always the goal, but I don’t look that far ahead,” she said. “I’ve seen people come in and run away with it in qualifying and go 0-2 in the bracket, there’s a lot of bowling that has to happen before I get to that point.
“Again, the stepladder is the goal but there are a lot of boxes that have to be checked first.”
She was runner-up in the event last year and has been able to improve her bowling even further by absorbing as much knowledge as she can when selected for international competition the past two years, crediting Team USA coaches for her progress.
“To have the opportunity to work with Kelly Kulick, (Bryan) O’Keefe and Andy Diercks, I was like a sponge. I was able to learn a lot and they have a lot of good information for me to take and help me continue to work on some things, it’s made my game grow quite a bit.”
Ausec will lean on what’s she learned when competition continues tomorrow at noon Eastern for the final round of qualifying. Afterwards, the top 31 plus Ledford will advance to the double-elimination match-play bracket, beginning at 5 p.m. Eastern and into Saturday until the top five are determined for the stepladder finals.
All bracket matches leading up to the stepladder will be three games with total pinfall determining who advances.
BowlTV will provide coverage of each round of competition, with the stepladder finals set to start at 1 p.m. Eastern on Sunday.
For more information on the USBC Senior Queens, visit BOWL.com/SeniorQueens.
LAS VEGAS – Dana Ausec of Colorado Springs, Colorado, is in a familiar spot after the first two rounds of qualifying at the 2025 United States Bowling Congress Senior Queens, which is being contested at Sam’s Town Bowling Center in Las Vegas.
The 2023 Senior Queens champion had a 10-game total of 2,250, good for an average of 225, and currently leads the field by a comfortable margin, with 128 pins between her and Liz Johnson of Niagara Falls, New York, in second place at 2,122.
Carol Norman of Houston is third at 2,120, Rino Sabo of Bennett, Colorado, holds fourth place with 2,109, while Stephanie Van Ness of Anchorage, Alaska, rounds out the top five with 2,105.
Jody Scheerer of Orlando, Florida (2,100), Lynda Barnes of Denton, Texas (2,070), Jodi Woessner of Oregon, Ohio (2,069), Kathy Ledford of Boise, Idaho (2,030), and Genie Franklin of Frisco, Texas (2,028), hold spots six through ten. Ledford is guaranteed a spot in the double-elimination bracket as the defending champion and has so far improved her positioning for the bracket.
Holding the final spot for match play is Raelyn Hazen of Roy, Utah, who has a 1,906 total.
Ausec only had one game below 200 on the day, with qualifying going as well as it did due to being able to see the picture clearly. She had an extra pair of eyes with her as her husband was in attendance.
“In the past, the transition has been my downfall because I’ve sometimes missed it but today my husband and I did a really good job of catching it,” said Ausec. “We made the right moves and right ball changes to stay with it, the one pair that I caught where I shot 180 it was just one lane that got really tricky. Other than that game, it was a really good, solid day for me.”
Ausec is in good position to make the match-play bracket as well as her third consecutive stepladder finals, but is keeping her focus on the next qualifying block.
“Any time you bowl a tournament like this, (making the stepladder) is always the goal, but I don’t look that far ahead,” she said. “I’ve seen people come in and run away with it in qualifying and go 0-2 in the bracket, there’s a lot of bowling that has to happen before I get to that point.
“Again, the stepladder is the goal but there are a lot of boxes that have to be checked first.”
She was runner-up in the event last year and has been able to improve her bowling even further by absorbing as much knowledge as she can when selected for international competition the past two years, crediting Team USA coaches for her progress.
“To have the opportunity to work with Kelly Kulick, (Bryan) O’Keefe and Andy Diercks, I was like a sponge. I was able to learn a lot and they have a lot of good information for me to take and help me continue to work on some things, it’s made my game grow quite a bit.”
Ausec will lean on what’s she learned when competition continues tomorrow at noon Eastern for the final round of qualifying. Afterwards, the top 31 plus Ledford will advance to the double-elimination match-play bracket, beginning at 5 p.m. Eastern and into Saturday until the top five are determined for the stepladder finals.
All bracket matches leading up to the stepladder will be three games with total pinfall determining who advances.
BowlTV will provide coverage of each round of competition, with the stepladder finals set to start at 1 p.m. Eastern on Sunday.
For more information on the USBC Senior Queens, visit BOWL.com/SeniorQueens.