Castillo and Gordon win U15 titles at 2024 Junior Gold Champinships
August 07, 2024
DETROIT – Bella Castillo of Odessa, Texas, and Elliott Gordon of Colombus, Ohio, were crowned champions in the 15-and-under division at the 2024 Junior Gold Championships, which just aired on CBS Sports Network.
No. 1 seed Castillo prevailed over No. 2 Trishna Desai of Nesconset, New York, 197-157, continuing the streak of two-handers and No. 1 seeds winning 2024 Junior Gold titles to this point.
Neither bowler could find a groove, combining for four strikes, but Castillo stayed clean by converting everything she left as Desai opened three times. Castillo had been practicing her spare shooting before the event and it paid off in a big way in the title match.
“I worked on spares a lot before coming so I knew I had a chance to go in and make all my spares,” said Castillo. “I just went in there with my head open, just being confident in myself. Hit the pocket, keep it controllable and make my spares.”
Being the top seed can be daunting for some as they have to potentially wait a while before heading to the TV pair, but Costillo wasn’t worried about that, instead having the mindset that has she already accomplished so much to this point and to let the pins fall where they may.
“I think it has its benefits and other qualities, but being the number one seed gave me some confidence in that, regardless, I was still going to have a high finish in this tournament. Just keeping my mind in the right positive state was the best thing I did today.”
She had the highest possible finish, and it made her one of her lifelong dreams come true.
“I have been dreaming about this moment forever, since I was a little girl I remember thinking that it's going to be me.”
Desai had advanced after taking down the defending U15 Girls champion and No. 2 seed Larielle Tharps of Orlando, Florida, using a clean 191 game to Tharps’ 155.
U15 Boys
Gordon entered the stepladder as the No. 1 seed and prevailed over No. 2 seed Kristofer Wagner, 225-208, leaving two-handers four for four in title matches and Wagner claiming second place in the U15 division for the second straight year.
The two competitors were neck and neck after Gordon started with five strikes in the first six frames and Wagner recovered from a first frame open to keep it close. Wagner’s string of strikes ended in the eighth frame after a bad shot went high and converted the 3-6-10 combo, before the ninth frame saw a good shot go light for the 2-8 leave, which he also converted.
Another strike by Gordon in the ninth put the pressure on Wagner, who stepped up in the 10th and went flush pocket for a 4 pin, the match slipping away. After converting the single pin spare and getting six on the fill for 208, Gordon went up and ended the match with his own single pin spare and count in the fill to finish with 225 and the title.
“It feels great, I feel really happy,” said Gordon. “I knew I could do this coming into this, but I didn’t know how far I was going to get. I just wanted to make match play.”
Gordon never missed the pocket until the fill, crediting his ball selection and shot making to stay in the pocket as well as the added confidence from the No. 1 seed.
“I had a good look with multiple balls so I decided to with the one I was most confident with and just throw it as well as possible, which I did. The top seed helped me confidence-wise.”
This was his last year in U15 but isn’t looking too far ahead for the step up into the U18 division, wanting to stay in the moment and enjoy it without putting any big expectations on himself.
Wagner advanced to the title match after defeating No. 3 seed Lincoln Moyer of Merritt Island, Florida, 244-184. That match saw each competitor never miss the pocket, but the pins fell for Wagner, as Moyer had five frames where the back row of pins refused to budge for him.
Junior Team USA Developmental Team
The U15 division also served as a qualifier for automatic spots on the 2025 Junior Team USA Developmental Team. In the boys and girls divisions, the top two qualifiers after 26 games of qualifying, the event champion, and the event runner-up earned places on the team.
Based on those criteria, the automatic qualifiers for the 2025 Junior Team USA Developmental Team are as follows:
Girls
*Anna Antony, Farmington, Connecticut (third after qualifying)
Lindsay Greim, Poway, California (second after qualifying)
U15G Runner-up - Trishna Desai, Nesconset, New York
U15G Champion - Bella Castillo, Odessa, Texas
Boys
*Ryan Campbell, Clinton, South Carolina (third after qualifying)
Zachary Mayne, Parma, Ohio (second after qualifying)
U15B Runner-up - Kristofer Wagner, Deland, Florida
U15B Champion - Elliott Gordon, Columbus, Ohio
*Since event champions Casillo and Gordon were also first after qualifying, the next available spots went to Antony and Campbell as the third-place finishers after qualifying.
The U15 division featured 613 boys and 300 girls at the 2024 Junior Gold Championships.
More than 3,100 United States Bowling Congress Youth members competed at Junior Gold 2024, traveling across eight bowling centers in the Detroit area in hopes of winning a piece of the approximately $500,000 scholarship fund, making a run at a national title and claiming a spot on Junior Team USA.
BowlTV provided livestream coverage of every round of the 2024 event leading up to the stepladder finals in each division. All stepladder finals were taped for broadcast on CBS Sports Network.
The U18 stepladder finals will air on August 13 at 5 p.m. Eastern.
No. 1 seed Castillo prevailed over No. 2 Trishna Desai of Nesconset, New York, 197-157, continuing the streak of two-handers and No. 1 seeds winning 2024 Junior Gold titles to this point.
Neither bowler could find a groove, combining for four strikes, but Castillo stayed clean by converting everything she left as Desai opened three times. Castillo had been practicing her spare shooting before the event and it paid off in a big way in the title match.
“I worked on spares a lot before coming so I knew I had a chance to go in and make all my spares,” said Castillo. “I just went in there with my head open, just being confident in myself. Hit the pocket, keep it controllable and make my spares.”
Being the top seed can be daunting for some as they have to potentially wait a while before heading to the TV pair, but Costillo wasn’t worried about that, instead having the mindset that has she already accomplished so much to this point and to let the pins fall where they may.
“I think it has its benefits and other qualities, but being the number one seed gave me some confidence in that, regardless, I was still going to have a high finish in this tournament. Just keeping my mind in the right positive state was the best thing I did today.”
She had the highest possible finish, and it made her one of her lifelong dreams come true.
“I have been dreaming about this moment forever, since I was a little girl I remember thinking that it's going to be me.”
Desai had advanced after taking down the defending U15 Girls champion and No. 2 seed Larielle Tharps of Orlando, Florida, using a clean 191 game to Tharps’ 155.
U15 Boys
Gordon entered the stepladder as the No. 1 seed and prevailed over No. 2 seed Kristofer Wagner, 225-208, leaving two-handers four for four in title matches and Wagner claiming second place in the U15 division for the second straight year.
The two competitors were neck and neck after Gordon started with five strikes in the first six frames and Wagner recovered from a first frame open to keep it close. Wagner’s string of strikes ended in the eighth frame after a bad shot went high and converted the 3-6-10 combo, before the ninth frame saw a good shot go light for the 2-8 leave, which he also converted.
Another strike by Gordon in the ninth put the pressure on Wagner, who stepped up in the 10th and went flush pocket for a 4 pin, the match slipping away. After converting the single pin spare and getting six on the fill for 208, Gordon went up and ended the match with his own single pin spare and count in the fill to finish with 225 and the title.
“It feels great, I feel really happy,” said Gordon. “I knew I could do this coming into this, but I didn’t know how far I was going to get. I just wanted to make match play.”
Gordon never missed the pocket until the fill, crediting his ball selection and shot making to stay in the pocket as well as the added confidence from the No. 1 seed.
“I had a good look with multiple balls so I decided to with the one I was most confident with and just throw it as well as possible, which I did. The top seed helped me confidence-wise.”
This was his last year in U15 but isn’t looking too far ahead for the step up into the U18 division, wanting to stay in the moment and enjoy it without putting any big expectations on himself.
Wagner advanced to the title match after defeating No. 3 seed Lincoln Moyer of Merritt Island, Florida, 244-184. That match saw each competitor never miss the pocket, but the pins fell for Wagner, as Moyer had five frames where the back row of pins refused to budge for him.
Junior Team USA Developmental Team
The U15 division also served as a qualifier for automatic spots on the 2025 Junior Team USA Developmental Team. In the boys and girls divisions, the top two qualifiers after 26 games of qualifying, the event champion, and the event runner-up earned places on the team.
Based on those criteria, the automatic qualifiers for the 2025 Junior Team USA Developmental Team are as follows:
Girls
*Anna Antony, Farmington, Connecticut (third after qualifying)
Lindsay Greim, Poway, California (second after qualifying)
U15G Runner-up - Trishna Desai, Nesconset, New York
U15G Champion - Bella Castillo, Odessa, Texas
Boys
*Ryan Campbell, Clinton, South Carolina (third after qualifying)
Zachary Mayne, Parma, Ohio (second after qualifying)
U15B Runner-up - Kristofer Wagner, Deland, Florida
U15B Champion - Elliott Gordon, Columbus, Ohio
*Since event champions Casillo and Gordon were also first after qualifying, the next available spots went to Antony and Campbell as the third-place finishers after qualifying.
The U15 division featured 613 boys and 300 girls at the 2024 Junior Gold Championships.
More than 3,100 United States Bowling Congress Youth members competed at Junior Gold 2024, traveling across eight bowling centers in the Detroit area in hopes of winning a piece of the approximately $500,000 scholarship fund, making a run at a national title and claiming a spot on Junior Team USA.
BowlTV provided livestream coverage of every round of the 2024 event leading up to the stepladder finals in each division. All stepladder finals were taped for broadcast on CBS Sports Network.
The U18 stepladder finals will air on August 13 at 5 p.m. Eastern.