SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Earlier this month, Team USA member Shannon O'Keefe of Arlington, Texas, helped her team to the top of the leaderboard at the USBC Open Championships.

This week, the 32-year-old right-hander headed east to Syracuse, where she led Shootin Nines of Indianapolis into the top spot in Scratch Team and second place in Diamond Team at the USBC Women's Championships with a 3,305 total. Team EFX of Sun City, Calif., previously held the lead in both categories with 3,275. Eagles Edge Pro Shop of Des Plaines, Ill., leads Diamond Team with 3,416, shot on the same squad as O'Keefe and her team.

"We've bowled together for a long time, and actually, we were having fun and catching up with one another, so we weren't even paying attention to the scores until the seventh frame of the last game," said O'Keefe, who rolled games of 267, 242 and 257 for a 766 team series at the Oncenter Convention Center on Thursday night. "We're really happy to have done so well, though."

O'Keefe was joined by Keli Callahan (707), Brenda Mack (647), Amanda Beck (599) and Jenifer Larson (586).

It has been an exciting few weeks for O'Keefe, whose Cambridge 1 team of Feeding Hills, Mass., is in second place in Team All-Events and Regular Team at the Open Championships.

Now, she must focus on the upcoming USBC Queens, where she'd like to improve on her fifth-place finish in 2007.

"I'm in a really good place right now," said O'Keefe, who added 710 in singles and 650 in doubles and moved into third place in Scratch and Diamond All-Events with a 2,126 total. "I'm letting go of trying to control everything and just focusing on enjoying myself. A lot of cool stuff has happened to me lately that has helped me see things in a whole new light. I'm OK with whatever happens out there. I'm throwing it well right now, and everything feels good, so I'm ready. That's all you can ask for."

Joey Biondo led Eagles Edge Pro Shop with a 678 series and was followed by Tracy Luncsford (663), Keri Caduto (662), Jonquay Armon (614) and Tina Becke (607). The group posted a 3,224 scratch total, and an additional 64 pins of handicap per game lifted them into the lead. Shootin Nines is second in Diamond Team with 3,347, which includes 14 pins of handicap per game.

Biondo and her teammates are no strangers to success. Biondo won the 1992 USBC Team USA Trials, which earned her a spot on Team USA in 1993, while Armon and Caduto each have one title at the Women's Championships. This year, though, they were extra focused on taking home a team championship.

"We've been bowling together for years, and this is the first time we really talked openly about winning the team event here," said Biondo, who is second in Diamond Singles with 775 and Diamond All-Events with 2,189. "We're so close that we're more like sisters. We are very supportive of each other and just want everyone to bowl well, but this year we really focused on trying to win for the first time. We were just in awe when we saw that we were in the lead."

Later on Thursday night, four-time Women's Championships titlist and local favorite, Michelle Feldman of Auburn, N.Y., teamed up with USBC Hall of Famer Aleta Sill of Livonia, Mich., to grab the Scratch Doubles lead with a 1,462 total. Tracey Magnuson of Faribault, Minn., and Diane Marget of Champlin, Minn., previously held the lead with 1,419. Though Magnuson and Marget now are fifth in Scratch Doubles, they still lead Diamond Doubles with 1,500.

"If we can hold on and take the doubles title, it will mean that I've won every title at least once, and that's great," said Feldman, whose last win was Classic Singles in 2009 with a record score of 816.

Simultaneously, on the other side of the 48-lane venue, 11-time Team USA member and 2006 Queens champion Shannon Pluhowsky of Kettering, Ohio, was raising the bar in singles and all-events.

The 28-year-old left-hander took the Scratch Singles lead with 763 and added 714 in doubles and 700 in team for a Scratch and Diamond All-Events-leading 2,177 total. Her stay at the top of the all-events standings was brief, however, as fellow southpaw Dede Davidson of Buellton, Calif., posted a 2,199 effort Friday morning.

Stacie Watson of San Diego previously led Scratch Singles with 713, while Brenda Pugh of La Mesa, Calif., leads Diamond Singles with 796. Sandy Darnstaedt of Belleville, Ill., previously led both all-events categories with 1,908.

"I've been bowling a lot lately, so I was ready for this," said Pluhowsky, who was a Classic Team champion at the Women's Championships in 2007. "I was able to get the time off of work, and I've got the right equipment, so now, I can just focus on going out there and bowling well.

The Diamond Division includes individual bowlers with averages of 180 and above, doubles team of 360 and above and teams with combined averages of 900 and above. Handicap is 100 percent of 220, 440 and 1100, respectively.

Sponsors for the 2011 USBC Women's Championships sponsors include Turning Stone Resort and Casino, official brackets sponsor, Humana, official registration sponsor, Miller Lite and Molson Canadian, official beer sponsors. Supporting sponsors include Storm Bowling Products, Nationwide Insurance, The Oncenter, Syracuse Convention and Visitors Bureau, Caz Limo & Tours, Kegel, official lane maintenance provider, US Steltronic, official scoring system, and Brunswick, official lane provider.