Kent in third, McEwan is 8th at World Cup

ARLINGTON, Texas – Marshall Kent of Yakima, Wash., and Danielle McEwan of Stony Point, N.Y., each got off to solid starts in the opening round of qualifying at the QubicaAMF World Cup in Wroclaw, Poland, on Monday.

Kent had a 1,132 pinfall total for the first five-game qualifying round and sits in third place, 17 pins behind Ukraine’s Mykhaylo Kalika. Kent had games of 245, 233, 225, 246 and 183.

“I started off with a pretty decent look,” Kent said. “I hit a pair that was fairly tricky and had to make a big move in Game 5. I’m still sitting pretty good at 132 over. I’ve learned a few things for the rest of the week, so we’ll see how it goes.”

McEwan is in eighth place after a 1,077 pinfall total in her opening round. Aumi Guerra of the Dominican Republic had a 1,201 total and has a 55-pin lead over second-place Kirsten Penny of England.

McEwan started with games of 193 and 195, and then posted a 269 game. She finished with games of 195 and 225.

“I’m not too happy about how it went but, looking at the results, I finished a lot higher than I thought I would,” McEwan said. “I know what I need to do and I need to come out of the box throwing it a lot better than I did today. There are a lot of games left but I’m sitting in good shape, considering.”

McEwan and Kent earned the opportunity to compete in the World Cup by winning the USBC Team USA Trials last January. The World Cup, which is being contested for the 48th year, is one of the most prestigious singles titles in the world.

“The hosts have been great, and this is a phenomenal facility,” Team USA head coach Rod Ross said after McEwan and Kent went through practice on Sunday. “This is going to be a great tournament.”

Monday marked the first of four rounds of qualifying. Each round will consist of five games, and the field will be cut to the top 24 men and top 24 women for eight additional games. The top eight in each division will then advance to round-robin match play to determine the top three men and top three women for the stepladder finals.

The World Cup is the largest international bowling tournament in the world in terms of the number of countries competing. This year's event is features 81 men and 68 women from more than 80 countries.