Crowe, Tharps lead after Day 1 of 2026 Team USA Trials and U.S. Amateur
January 03, 2026
Larielle Tharps of Orlando, Florida, posts up a shot during Saturday's opening round of qualifying at the 2026 USBC Team USA Trials and U.S. National Amateur Bowling Championships, which are being held at Gold Coast Bowling Center in Las Vegas.
FULL RESULTS
LAS VEGAS – Cameron Crowe of Orland Park, Illinois, and Larielle Tharps of Orlando, Florida, led their respective divisions after Day 1 of competition at the 2026 United States Bowling Congress Team USA Trials and United States National Amateur Bowling Championships, which are being held at Gold Coast Bowling Center in Las Vegas.
Crowe mastered the opening round’s 42-foot oil pattern better than anyone in the 175-player men’s field on Saturday, firing games of 269, 269, 267, 253, 213 and 223 to post a first-place total of 1,494 (a 249 average).
Dawson Peterson of Stewartville, Minnesota, wasn’t far behind, finishing second in the men’s division on opening day with a mark of 1,477, which included high games of 279 and 267.
Anthony Hornick of Davidson, North Carolina, and David Cole of Beloit, Wisconsin, were next in line with 1,443 and 1,437, respectively, while Spencer Robarge of Springfield, Missouri, and T.J. Rock of Las Vegas tied for the final spot in the Round 1 men’s top five with matching marks of 1,428.
Defending Team USA Trials men’s champion Ryan Barnes of Denton, Texas, was 20th on Saturday with a six-game total of 1,375.
There were plenty of good scores posted in the women’s division during Round 1 as well, but it was Tharps who stood alone atop the 132-player field by day’s end.
The 2023 Junior Gold Championships U15 Girls national champ was strong from start to finish on Saturday, putting up scores of 278, 235, 263, 213, 238 and 233 on the 42-foot women’s oil pattern to post a first-place total of 1,460 (a 243.33 average).
Saphyre Nofuente of Rocklin, California, finished just nine pins back at 1,451 while Avery Domaguin of San Diego (1,409), Breanna Clemmer of Pikeville, Kentucky (1,405), and Haley Swindle of Sharpsburg, Georgia (1,398), also landed in the women’s opening-round top five.
Crystal Elliott of Palm Bay, Florida, also was steady on Saturday. The reigning Team USA Trials women’s champ finished Day 1 in 21st place at 1,309.
Even though Tharps is no stranger to national competition, the 17-year-old right-hander admitted to being a bit anxious throughout Saturday’s opening round.
“This is my first Team USA Trials, so I didn’t really know what was going to happen,” Tharps said. “I was full of nerves and shaking almost every single game, but I just took some deep breaths, focused on my mental game and made sure to make my spares.”
But Tharps didn’t have to convert many spares during the early portion of Saturday’s block as she began the day with a blistering 776 series for her first three games.
Tharps credited the strong start to pre-tournament preparation and to favorable lane-play strategy on the part of her fellow competitors.
“I’ve practiced on similar patterns back home a lot to ensure I’m able to understand the pattern fully and know what balls to use,” Tharps said. “It also helped that I crossed with people who broke the lanes down to my liking and created a little path for me.”
That path led Tharps to the No. 1 spot in the women’s field on Saturday. Even though four rounds of competition remain on four different, challenging oil patterns, she hopes to use the confidence gained via her opening-day performance to help her through the remainder of this year’s event.
“A day like today definitely boosts my confidence up a bit,” Tharps said. “To know that I’m able to compete at such a great level with all of these collegiate bowlers and pros helps me a lot.”
Crowe knows what it’s like to bowl this tournament as both an amateur and pro.
Now, 24, Crowe won the U.S. Amateur title at Gold Coast in 2020 when he was just 18.
This year, the lefty two-hander has his sights set on capturing his first Team USA Trials championship, and Saturday’s opening-round effort certainly helped get him started in the right direction.
“I tried to keep my game simple today,” Crowe said. “I like to throw it hard, and the lanes allowed me to do that for the first couple games. I hit them for some big scores when I was able to, and then I held on and maintained during the last couple games when I had to move a little bit.”
Crowe hit them to the tune of an 805 series during Games 1-3 on Saturday, which was second only to Cole’s 808 mark during that same stretch.
An 800 series is a remarkable accomplishment under any circumstances, but what made Crowe’s performance even more impressive was the fact that he came into Round 1 cold after being unable to attend the tournament’s practice session on Friday.
“My bad luck with the practice session at the Team USA Trials is absolutely insane,” Crowe said. “I’ve gotten snowed in and been unable to make it. I’ve had bowling balls left behind. It’s just been crazy, but the year I won, I didn’t make the practice session. So, I guess I’m just hoping history repeats itself.”
To make that happen, Crowe simply plans on taking things one step at a time.
“It’s a six-game sprint every day here,” Crowe said. “This tournament, for Day 1, is over. I celebrated for about the last 20 minutes, and now I’m looking ahead to Day 2.
“I need to keep a steady head, stay focused and stay in it as long as possible even when things go bad. Today, luckily, it was all good. That’s not going to happen for the next 24 games, so I need to keep my mind right and, hopefully, things will go well.”
At one point on Saturday, things didn’t just go well for Silas Moats of St. Louis and Kaitlyn Stull of Raleigh, North Carolina; they went perfectly.
That’s because both Moats and Stull achieved perfection during Round 1 with Moats shooting 300 during Game 3 of men’s qualifying on Saturday morning and Stull posting a perfect game of her own during Game 2 of the women’s opening round just a few hours later.
Stull’s 300 allowed her to finish Round 1 in 13th place in the women’s field with a mark of 1,359 while Moats ended the day at 1,298 to sit 60th in the men’s division.
Competition resumes Sunday morning at 11 a.m. Eastern with the men’s field before the women hit the lanes at 6 p.m. Eastern. All rounds of competition will be streamed live exclusively on BowlTV.
CLICK HERE for more information on Team USA.
FULL RESULTS
LAS VEGAS – Cameron Crowe of Orland Park, Illinois, and Larielle Tharps of Orlando, Florida, led their respective divisions after Day 1 of competition at the 2026 United States Bowling Congress Team USA Trials and United States National Amateur Bowling Championships, which are being held at Gold Coast Bowling Center in Las Vegas.
Crowe mastered the opening round’s 42-foot oil pattern better than anyone in the 175-player men’s field on Saturday, firing games of 269, 269, 267, 253, 213 and 223 to post a first-place total of 1,494 (a 249 average).
Dawson Peterson of Stewartville, Minnesota, wasn’t far behind, finishing second in the men’s division on opening day with a mark of 1,477, which included high games of 279 and 267.
Anthony Hornick of Davidson, North Carolina, and David Cole of Beloit, Wisconsin, were next in line with 1,443 and 1,437, respectively, while Spencer Robarge of Springfield, Missouri, and T.J. Rock of Las Vegas tied for the final spot in the Round 1 men’s top five with matching marks of 1,428.
Defending Team USA Trials men’s champion Ryan Barnes of Denton, Texas, was 20th on Saturday with a six-game total of 1,375.
There were plenty of good scores posted in the women’s division during Round 1 as well, but it was Tharps who stood alone atop the 132-player field by day’s end.
The 2023 Junior Gold Championships U15 Girls national champ was strong from start to finish on Saturday, putting up scores of 278, 235, 263, 213, 238 and 233 on the 42-foot women’s oil pattern to post a first-place total of 1,460 (a 243.33 average).
Saphyre Nofuente of Rocklin, California, finished just nine pins back at 1,451 while Avery Domaguin of San Diego (1,409), Breanna Clemmer of Pikeville, Kentucky (1,405), and Haley Swindle of Sharpsburg, Georgia (1,398), also landed in the women’s opening-round top five.
Crystal Elliott of Palm Bay, Florida, also was steady on Saturday. The reigning Team USA Trials women’s champ finished Day 1 in 21st place at 1,309.
Even though Tharps is no stranger to national competition, the 17-year-old right-hander admitted to being a bit anxious throughout Saturday’s opening round.
“This is my first Team USA Trials, so I didn’t really know what was going to happen,” Tharps said. “I was full of nerves and shaking almost every single game, but I just took some deep breaths, focused on my mental game and made sure to make my spares.”
But Tharps didn’t have to convert many spares during the early portion of Saturday’s block as she began the day with a blistering 776 series for her first three games.
Tharps credited the strong start to pre-tournament preparation and to favorable lane-play strategy on the part of her fellow competitors.
“I’ve practiced on similar patterns back home a lot to ensure I’m able to understand the pattern fully and know what balls to use,” Tharps said. “It also helped that I crossed with people who broke the lanes down to my liking and created a little path for me.”
That path led Tharps to the No. 1 spot in the women’s field on Saturday. Even though four rounds of competition remain on four different, challenging oil patterns, she hopes to use the confidence gained via her opening-day performance to help her through the remainder of this year’s event.
“A day like today definitely boosts my confidence up a bit,” Tharps said. “To know that I’m able to compete at such a great level with all of these collegiate bowlers and pros helps me a lot.”
Crowe knows what it’s like to bowl this tournament as both an amateur and pro.
Now, 24, Crowe won the U.S. Amateur title at Gold Coast in 2020 when he was just 18.
This year, the lefty two-hander has his sights set on capturing his first Team USA Trials championship, and Saturday’s opening-round effort certainly helped get him started in the right direction.
“I tried to keep my game simple today,” Crowe said. “I like to throw it hard, and the lanes allowed me to do that for the first couple games. I hit them for some big scores when I was able to, and then I held on and maintained during the last couple games when I had to move a little bit.”
Crowe hit them to the tune of an 805 series during Games 1-3 on Saturday, which was second only to Cole’s 808 mark during that same stretch.
An 800 series is a remarkable accomplishment under any circumstances, but what made Crowe’s performance even more impressive was the fact that he came into Round 1 cold after being unable to attend the tournament’s practice session on Friday.
“My bad luck with the practice session at the Team USA Trials is absolutely insane,” Crowe said. “I’ve gotten snowed in and been unable to make it. I’ve had bowling balls left behind. It’s just been crazy, but the year I won, I didn’t make the practice session. So, I guess I’m just hoping history repeats itself.”
To make that happen, Crowe simply plans on taking things one step at a time.
“It’s a six-game sprint every day here,” Crowe said. “This tournament, for Day 1, is over. I celebrated for about the last 20 minutes, and now I’m looking ahead to Day 2.
“I need to keep a steady head, stay focused and stay in it as long as possible even when things go bad. Today, luckily, it was all good. That’s not going to happen for the next 24 games, so I need to keep my mind right and, hopefully, things will go well.”
At one point on Saturday, things didn’t just go well for Silas Moats of St. Louis and Kaitlyn Stull of Raleigh, North Carolina; they went perfectly.
That’s because both Moats and Stull achieved perfection during Round 1 with Moats shooting 300 during Game 3 of men’s qualifying on Saturday morning and Stull posting a perfect game of her own during Game 2 of the women’s opening round just a few hours later.
Stull’s 300 allowed her to finish Round 1 in 13th place in the women’s field with a mark of 1,359 while Moats ended the day at 1,298 to sit 60th in the men’s division.
Competition resumes Sunday morning at 11 a.m. Eastern with the men’s field before the women hit the lanes at 6 p.m. Eastern. All rounds of competition will be streamed live exclusively on BowlTV.
CLICK HERE for more information on Team USA.