Franco and Randisi win U12 titles at 2024 Junior Gold Championships
July 31, 2024
DETROIT – Alyssa Randisi out of Brooklyn, New York, and Eli Franco of Fishers, Indiana, are the 2024 Junior Gold Championships 12-and-under division national champions, which just aired on CBS Sports Network.
No. 1 Randisi, one of the few two-handed bowlers on the girls side of the field, took home the U12 Girls title, defeating No. 3 seed Aliyana Debina-Gasper of Mililani, Hawaii, 198-153.
Randisi led wire to wire all tournament long and it was only fitting that she was the winner of the U12 Girls division, putting a stamp on an excellent week after years of hard work.
“To me, it means I’ve come a really long way,” said Randisi. “I used to just take the ball in my hands and throw it down the lane, I’ve seen myself grow throughout the years and throughout Junior Gold.”
Randisi opened the title match with three strikes in a row while Debina-Gasper had the first two, but Debina-Gasper had three straight splits. Debina-Gasper was unable to make up the ground the rest of the game, as an additional two open frames for her sealed the win for Randisi, who only had one open prior the 10th frame and had a double in frames seven and eight.
Randisi was not satisfied with just winning this year, as she has her sights set on getting even better for 2025.
“I’m going to work a lot harder because I know what I did this year is not enough to get to the top of the U15 Girls and I want to be at the top there too. I’m going to train a lot harder, work on what I struggled with this year and hopefully be better.”
Before the title match, Debina-Gasper faced off against No. 2 seed Daisy Newton of Honolulu, Hawaii. Both competitors struggled to start the match, but a key five-bagger for Debina-Gasper put the game out of reach to advance, 213-175.
U12 Boys
No. 1 seed Franco was able to parlay a big four-bagger in the middle of his match to a Junior Gold title, taking down No. 2 seed Eason Taylor of Chicago in the title match, 205-179.
Franco and Taylor traded opening frames in the second, but both immediately got back on track with a couple of strikes. Taylor had disaster strike when he opened in frames five and seven while the two-handed Franco stayed clean the rest of the way until the 10th frame, where the match was already decided.
“I just tried to make good, quality shots and avoid the early hook,” said Franco after winning. He had previously not made it past qualifying in the last two years and put in the extra work to get himself into the position of the No. 1 seed, and is now feeling the effects of all the games this week.
“Feels exhausting after this week, but it’s great. We got through it, that’s the most important part.”
Taylor was able to take on Franco after winning a high-scoring match against No. 3 seed Thomas Ault of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. Both players kept striking, but it was Taylor who prevailed, 268-257, and advanced to take on Franco.
Franco admitted to feeling a little nervous watching the strikes pile up as he waited.
“I thought I was going to have to bowl the game of my life. I had to focus on myself, make good shots and not focus on the lights or the cameras. Getting here, winning this, it’s really a dream come true.”
The U12 division featured 208 boys and 117 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.
Junior Gold telecasts will adhere to the schedule that follows: U15 (Tuesday, Aug. 6, at 11 p.m. Eastern, with re-air on Aug. 11 at noon Eastern) and U18 (Tuesday, Aug. 13, at 5 p.m. Eastern).
No. 1 Randisi, one of the few two-handed bowlers on the girls side of the field, took home the U12 Girls title, defeating No. 3 seed Aliyana Debina-Gasper of Mililani, Hawaii, 198-153.
Randisi led wire to wire all tournament long and it was only fitting that she was the winner of the U12 Girls division, putting a stamp on an excellent week after years of hard work.
“To me, it means I’ve come a really long way,” said Randisi. “I used to just take the ball in my hands and throw it down the lane, I’ve seen myself grow throughout the years and throughout Junior Gold.”
Randisi opened the title match with three strikes in a row while Debina-Gasper had the first two, but Debina-Gasper had three straight splits. Debina-Gasper was unable to make up the ground the rest of the game, as an additional two open frames for her sealed the win for Randisi, who only had one open prior the 10th frame and had a double in frames seven and eight.
Randisi was not satisfied with just winning this year, as she has her sights set on getting even better for 2025.
“I’m going to work a lot harder because I know what I did this year is not enough to get to the top of the U15 Girls and I want to be at the top there too. I’m going to train a lot harder, work on what I struggled with this year and hopefully be better.”
Before the title match, Debina-Gasper faced off against No. 2 seed Daisy Newton of Honolulu, Hawaii. Both competitors struggled to start the match, but a key five-bagger for Debina-Gasper put the game out of reach to advance, 213-175.
U12 Boys
No. 1 seed Franco was able to parlay a big four-bagger in the middle of his match to a Junior Gold title, taking down No. 2 seed Eason Taylor of Chicago in the title match, 205-179.
Franco and Taylor traded opening frames in the second, but both immediately got back on track with a couple of strikes. Taylor had disaster strike when he opened in frames five and seven while the two-handed Franco stayed clean the rest of the way until the 10th frame, where the match was already decided.
“I just tried to make good, quality shots and avoid the early hook,” said Franco after winning. He had previously not made it past qualifying in the last two years and put in the extra work to get himself into the position of the No. 1 seed, and is now feeling the effects of all the games this week.
“Feels exhausting after this week, but it’s great. We got through it, that’s the most important part.”
Taylor was able to take on Franco after winning a high-scoring match against No. 3 seed Thomas Ault of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. Both players kept striking, but it was Taylor who prevailed, 268-257, and advanced to take on Franco.
Franco admitted to feeling a little nervous watching the strikes pile up as he waited.
“I thought I was going to have to bowl the game of my life. I had to focus on myself, make good shots and not focus on the lights or the cameras. Getting here, winning this, it’s really a dream come true.”
The U12 division featured 208 boys and 117 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.
Junior Gold telecasts will adhere to the schedule that follows: U15 (Tuesday, Aug. 6, at 11 p.m. Eastern, with re-air on Aug. 11 at noon Eastern) and U18 (Tuesday, Aug. 13, at 5 p.m. Eastern).